January 2021 Issue
Ready to roar back
Equity Release 20 Jan 2021Andrea Rozario, chief corporate officer of Bower Shall we call 2020 a write-off I had high hopes for the... Read more
Buy-to-Let 20 Jan 2021
The value of buy-to-let
Richard Rowntree is managing director mortgages of Paragon Bank
Despite the pandemic’s emergence in 2019, it is 2020 that will go...
Buy-to-Let 20 Jan 2021
What an opportunity for positive change
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
What a year, and what a challenge, in 2020; it’s hard to put into...
2021 and the challenges ahead
20 Jan 2021
Stuart Miller is customer director of Newcastle Building Society
The world has been through one of the worst crises of this...
An introduction to introductions
20 Jan 2021
Pete Gwilliam is director of Virtus Search
Whether you are applying for jobs or speculatively introducing yourself to an employer that...
Money laundering and property
14 Dec 2020
John Dobson is CEO at SmartSearch
For most people, the phrase ‘money laundering’ probably brings to mind Hollywood gangster films. But...
Are you OK?
14 Dec 2020
Jeff Woods is campaigns and propositions director at Sesame Bankhall Group
Mental health is an important topic of conversation, and rightly...
Service
14 Dec 2020
A clear purpose will guide us through
Stuart Miller is customer director at Newcastle Building Society
While there has been much tragedy and hardship in the wake of an ongoing health crisis, such disasters do often have the...
Buy-to-Let
14 Dec 2020
Stamp duty cliff edge
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
The stamp duty holiday announced in July for properties up to £500,000 in England provided a welcome boost to the housing market, allowing it...
19 Nov 2020
Shaun Almond: The wrong question?
Shaun Almond is managing director of HL Partnership
At what point do you tell customers that they have little or no chance of getting their purchase completed before the end of...
Equity Release
18 Nov 2020
Andrea Rozario: Don’t believe everything you read
Andrea Rozario is chief corporate officer of Bower Retirement Services
“Scammers and con artists.” “Barely qualified to O Level standard.” “Mugging old ladies and old men.”
These are just some of...
General Insurance 18 Nov 2020
James Watson: ‘Tis the season to talk about GI
James Watson is sales director of Paymentshield
Halloween has been and gone and the clocks have turned back, bringing in the shorter days and with it, the colder weather. Given everything that has happened this year,...
First-time Buyers
18 Nov 2020
Adrian Moloney: Getting the help they need
Adrian Moloney is group sales director of OneSavings Bank
Getting a foot on the property ladder has never been easy. I don’t know about you, but I still remember those years...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2020
Jane Simpson: Technology trumps
Jane Simpson is managing director at TBMC
A month is a long time in the buy-to-let mortgage market, although COVID-19 has added a certain feeling of Groundhog Day to our lives,...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2020
Bob Young: The clock is ticking for stamp duty break
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
There are many who might wish to deny it, but the housing market remains one of the key drivers of the UK...
18 Nov 2020
Tony Marshall: The second charge revival
Tony Marshall is managing director of Equifinance
To say that this has been a testing period for the second charge sector, as well as the whole lending market, would be an...
19 Oct 2020
Pete Gwilliam: The growing need for support
Pete Gwilliam is director of Virtus Search
It has been pleasing to see that in a number of instances within the mortgage sector, individuals have returned to full-time roles following periods...
AMI
15 Oct 2020
Robert Sinclair: Fighting for justice
Robert Sinclair is chief executive officer of AMI
In October I spent an hour creating a podcast with the UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group.
What this brought home to me was...
General Insurance
15 Oct 2020
Jeff Woods: Understand fair value obligations
Jeff Woods is campaigns and propositions director of Sesame Bankhall Group
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published its final report following its study into the pricing of general insurance (GI),...
Protection
15 Oct 2020
Ben Burgess: Mortgage protection for FTBs
Ben Burgess is senior adviser and protection specialist of LifeSearch
Thinking about our own mortality coupled with how injury or illness could alter our quality of life is not particularly pleasant....
15 Oct 2020
Jane Simpson: Successful sourcing in buy-to-let
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
Being able to accurately source buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages is one of the challenges of successfully placing cases for landlord clients.
The marketplace for buy-to-let...
Protection
15 Sep 2020
Jeff Woods: The importance of choice in this time
Jeff Woods is campaigns and propositions director of Sesame Bankhall Group
The issue of choice in the protection market has never been more important than right now, but why
The impact...
15 Sep 2020
Shaun Almond: Cheapest is not necessarily best
Shaun Almond is managing director of HL Partnership
Logic tells us that if two loaves of bread of the same quality are priced so that loaf A is cheaper than loaf...
General Insurance
15 Aug 2020
Rob Evans: Diversity in financial services
Rob Evans is CEO of Paymentshield
Recent developments in the Black Lives Matter movement have galvanized dialogue nationwide around institutionalised prejudice, unconscious bias, and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) under-representation....
Buy-to-Let
10 Aug 2020
Jane Simpson: Continuing change in buy-to-let
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
A month is a long time in the buy-to-let mortgage market, which has always been a dynamic sector that continually changes in line with...
Protection
12 Jul 2020
Paul Yates: Time to make a new plan, Stan
Paul Yates is product strategy director at iPipeline
As the UK slowly makes its way out of lockdown, the attention of many businesses has shifted from dealing with the immediate consequences...
Protection
11 Jul 2020
Ben Burgess: Five helpful protection changes
Ben Burgess is senior protection adviser at LifeSearch
We are all becoming more aware of the economic, logistical, and administrative limitations the pandemic has wrought upon our industry. Simply put, it...
Conveyancing
24 Jun 2020
Steve Goodall: Digital change has been accelerated
Steve Goodall is CEO of ULS Technology
Lockdown has taught us many lessons, but one that is particularly poignant for me has been the speed at which all of us have...
Conveyancing
24 Jun 2020
Tom Bessant: Pros of exchange and completion in one
Tom Bessant is partner, commercial property department at Parker Bullen
In April, Zoopla estimated that around 373,000 property transactions, with a total value of £82bn, were on hold.
Since then, the...
Equity Release
24 Jun 2020
Claire Barker: Equity release must adapt
Claire Barker is managing director of Equilaw
With social distancing measures looking likely to remain in force for the foreseeable future, it is essential for financial service providers to adapt and...
Equity Release
24 Jun 2020
Alice Watson: Time to review retirement needs
Alice Watson is head of marketing and communications at Canada Life
We’ve all had a lot more time on our hands, whether we’ve spent it thinking about seeing family or...
Equity Release
24 Jun 2020
Hattie Tales: The industry is embracing tech
Hattie Tales is a BDM at Pure Retirement
We are living and working through unfamiliar times. As an industry, we have needed to react and adjust like never before to ensure...
Equity Release
24 Jun 2020
Stuart Wilson: A change is gonna come
Stuart Wilson is CEO of Air Group
Given the momentous nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing impact on the entire property market, let alone the equity release sector, it...
Building Societies
24 Jun 2020
Jeremy Wood: Small building societies could thrive
Jeremy Wood is chief executive of Dudley Building Society
Creating a picture of the building society sector in the next one to two years could only be speculative at best, bearing...
General Insurance
24 Jun 2020
Geoff Hall: Health and Safety post-COVID-19
Geoff Hall is chairman of Berkeley Alexander
The pandemic will probably ravage the economy and people’s finances for years to come.
The impact has been all encompassing and indiscriminate.
Beyond the...
Protection
24 Jun 2020
Jeff Woods: The importance of keeping in touch
Jeff Woods is campaigns and propositions director at Sesame Bankhall Group
As financial advisory firms continue to work through this challenging period, two key actions stand out: retaining and developing new...
Protection
24 Jun 2020
Steve Ellis: Compare the concerns
Steve Ellis is head of risk and protection at Premier Choice Group
If there is one thing for which we are in this business – that of protecting people’s health and...
Protection
24 Jun 2020
Mark Graves: The outlook after COVID-19
Mark Graves is chief executive officer of Auxilium Partnership
A couple of weeks ago we announced our collaboration with UnderwriteMe, where we’ll offer our member firms access to the Protection Platform.
Why...
Protection
24 Jun 2020
Andy Philo: Unexpected adviser opportunities
Andy Philo is director of strategic partnerships at Vitality
The lockdown has changed life for us all. We’ve all found new ways of working, socialising and parenting.
The coronavirus pandemic –...
Protection
24 Jun 2020
Mike Allison: Mental health issues could be here to stay
Mike Allison is head of protection at Paradigm Mortgage Services
Mental Health Week has come and gone; there was, quite rightly, a heightened level of awareness this year as it coincided...
Protection
24 Jun 2020
Kevin Carr: Protection can be the pinnacle of insurance
Kevin Carr is chief executive of Protection Review and MD of Carr Consulting
It’s just insurance. Home insurance, car insurance, life insurance…
It’s all the same. No one likes it, no...
Buy-to-Let
24 Jun 2020
Jane Simpson: Support for tenants and landlords
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
Over the last couple of months there have been many conversations around the onus on students to pay rent for university accommodation during the...
Buy-to-Let
24 Jun 2020
Jeff Knight: The first steps on a long road
Jeff Knight is director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans
In scanning the buy-to-let (BTL) news section on the Mortgage Introducer website, it’s uplifting to see such a slew of...
Buy-to-Let
24 Jun 2020
Bob Young: We must stay the course
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
Many have talked about the qualities required by mortgage market stakeholders throughout this period in order to successfully ‘exit’ themselves post-pandemic in...
Buy-to-Let
24 Jun 2020
Ying Tan: Positive signs but pragmatism required
Ying Tan is founder and chief executive of Dynamo
With many lenders returning to the market on the back of the resumption of physical valuations, the buy-to-let (BTL) marketplace has sprung...
High Net Worth
24 Jun 2020
Peter Izard: Social distancing and the property market
Peter Izard is business development manager at Investec Private Bank
As businesses and society adapt to the new normal brought about by COVID-19, we’re seeing enormous levels of innovation and adaptation,...
Market
24 Jun 2020
Stuart Miller: We are all going to need each other
Stuart Miller is customer director at Newcastle Building Society
Our lives have changed and are being reshaped in ways we couldn’t have imagined – the consequences of which will be with...
Surveying
24 Jun 2020
Joe Arnold: De-coupling valuation and property survey
Joe Arnold is managing director of Arnold & Baldwin Chartered Surveyors
I’m slightly baffled by the raft of negative headlines we have seen about the housing market in recent weeks as...
Education
24 Jun 2020
John Somerville: Trust in mortgage advice matters
John Somerville is head of regulatory relationships, corporate and professional learning at The London Institute of Banking & Finance
Over the past two years, most people have wanted mortgage advisers to...
Holiday Lets
24 Jun 2020
Jean Errington: Changing prospects for holiday lets
Jean Errington is a BDM at Harpenden Building Society
The lockdown is affecting all areas of every business, especially the travel and tourism sectors.
The coronavirus outbreak is also causing a widespread...
Conveyancing
24 Jun 2020
Mark Snape: Get ready for the double whammy
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
For the past four years or so, we’ve all been dealing with what would appear to be ‘the great unknown’ when it comes...
General Insurance
24 Jun 2020
Rob Evans: Lighting the path back to growth
Rob Evans is CEO of Paymentshield
There are sparks of life in the mortgage market again. May saw the government ease restrictions on the property sector, with house moves resuming and...
AMI
24 Jun 2020
Stacy Reeve: Product value in insurance
Stacy Reeve is senior policy adviser at AMI
On 3 June the FCA published guidance on the value of insurance products (GI and pure protection).
The focus is on products which, due...
AMI
24 Jun 2020
Robert Sinclair: Showing true colours
Robert Sinclair is chief executive officer of AMI
The first week of June saw the interim chief executive of the FCA make his boldest move since taking the reins.
In announcing that...
Protection
24 May 2020
Mike Allison: The importance of compliance now
Mike Allison is head of protection at Paradigm Mortgage Services
Every day we receive news briefings from the government providing the latest information on coronavirus.
We are informed with plenty of...
Market
24 May 2020
David Lownds: Keeping up to date is a difficult task
David Lownds is head of marketing and business development at Hanley Economic Building Society
The lending community continues to strike a balance between reactivity and proactivity as we battle our way...
IMLA
24 May 2020
Kate Davies: Finding optimism in times of crisis
Kate Davies is executive director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA)
The mortgage market has seen a monumental shake-up to normal activity in recent weeks as the impact of the...
Market
24 May 2020
Stuart Miller: At our best when we work together
Stuart Miller is customer director at Newcastle Building Society
Times are undoubtedly tough at the moment in so many ways. The current crisis has created new uncertainties about the health of...
Surveying
24 May 2020
Kevin Webb: Our way of working is changing forever
Kevin Webb is managing director of Legal & General Surveying Services
When we emerge from the current crisis, some of the challenges we faced before will persist. Climate change is...
Equity Release
24 May 2020
Alice Watson: Collaboration and communication
Alice Watson is head of marketing and communications at Canada Life
Over the last few weeks, coronavirus has significantly impacted our day-to-day lives, and this is no different when it comes...
Equity Release
24 May 2020
Claire Barker: Maintaining standards in challenging times
Claire Barker is managing director of Equilaw
As the rising tide of coronavirus cases continues to impact on social and economic conditions around the world, a climate of uncertainty has taken...
General Insurance
24 May 2020
Geoff Hall: Life after COVID-19
Geoff Hall is chairman of Berkeley Alexander
With everyone reeling from the impact of COVID-19, the ramifications for brokers’ businesses will be massive.
Mortgage sales are likely to take the biggest...
General Insurance
24 May 2020
Rob Evans: What legacy will coronavirus leave?
Rob Evans is CEO of Paymentshield
There isn’t an industry in the world that has been unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic. The impact on financial services in particular could be felt...
Protection
24 May 2020
Jeff Woods: The best and the worst of times
Jeff Woods is campaigns and propositions director at Sesame Bankhall Group
Although the phrase ‘living in unprecedented times’ has been overused, it is unfortunately true.
Another common phrase is that a...
Protection
24 May 2020
Steve Ellis: For when business rises
Steve Ellis is head of risk and protection at Premier Choice Group
We are in strange times, and serious ones. Not only are jobs and finances under threat – even for...
Protection
24 May 2020
Alisa Wallington: Financial resilience and DIY haircuts
Alisa Wallington is senior product manager at iPipeline
Decision-making has never Really been my strong point, but thanks to COVID-19, my life has become one guilt-ridden decision after the other.
Have I...
Technology
24 May 2020
John Dobson: Discard manual AML checks
John Dobson is chief executive of SmartSearch
The advent of social distancing has highlighted the shortcomings of many outdated business processes.
With lockdown restrictions in place, it simply hasn’t been feasible...
Technology
24 May 2020
David Bennett: Weddings, divorces and being cheerful
David Bennett is commercial director at eKeeper
It would be safe to say that Zoom, Teams, WebEx, etc. are no longer the preserve of the techno-savvy nor the office linguist who...
Protection
24 May 2020
Andy Philo: Clients should stay protected
Andy Philo is director of strategic partnerships at Vitality
The COVID-19 pandemic has put health, wellness and the value of protection under the spotlight like never before. While March saw a...
Buy-to-Let
24 May 2020
Jane Simpson: Riding out the turbulence
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
The buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage market has, unsurprisingly, experienced significant turbulence since the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown, meaning the profile of lenders and products...
Buy-to-Let
24 May 2020
Jeff Knight: Working through the new abnormal
Jeff Knight is director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans
Here at Foundation Home Loans, we recently teamed up with Mortgage Introducer on a webinar focused on working through the...
Buy-to-Let
24 May 2020
Bob Young: Don’t discount the statistics
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
There is clearly a great appetite for statistics and data analysis within, and around, the UK housing and mortgage market, simply because...
Buy-to-Let
24 May 2020
Ying Tan: Quality advice will prove key
Ying Tan is founder and chief executive of Dynamo
Despite enduring some tough weeks, it was good to see the government acknowledge some of the issues surrounding the private rented sector...
AMI
24 May 2020
Robert Sinclair: Business as usual at the FCA
Robert Sinclair is chief executive officer of AMI
In its proposed fees budget for 2020/21, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has considered the effect of any fee increases on small firms...
Equity Release
14 May 2020
Stuart Wilson: This was never going to be easy
Stuart Wilson is CEO of Air Group
'Expect the unexpected’ is a mantra you tend to hear a lot in business, along with the phrase, ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’....
Technology
4 May 2020
Steve Goodall: The time value of money
Steve Goodall is CEO of ULS Technology
That time is money is not a new concept. As I write this column in mid-April, however, it seems bleakly that time is now...
Conveyancing
4 May 2020
Mark Snape: Working together to make it through this
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
By the time you read this, it’s likely that the three-week extension of the lockdown will be over and – judging by...
Education
24 Apr 2020
Craig Middleton: Sheltering from the storm of uncertainty
Craig Middleton is mortgage sales and distribution manager at Harpenden Building Society
If we think back to just a few months ago, things were looking up. The ‘will we, won’t we’...
Conveyancing
24 Apr 2020
Mark Snape: Navigating difficult times
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
The nature of writing for this magazine is that, at times, what you write today might not necessarily be the case when...
Equity Release
24 Apr 2020
Claire Barker: Ensuring best practice
Claire Barker is managing director of Equilaw
Figures published by the Equity Release Council have revealed that £3.92bn worth of housing equity was released by property owners in 2019, with almost...
Equity Release
24 Apr 2020
Stuart Wilson: Take advantage of the support on offer
Stuart Wilson is CEO of Air Group
It has, without doubt, been an extraordinary time recently.
I’m conscious that I’m writing this article a couple of weeks prior to you reading it,...
Equity Release
24 Apr 2020
Alice Watson: The changing face of retirement
Alice Watson is head of marketing and communications at Canada Life
Retirement is evolving; not only are people living longer than they may have expected, but they may well be working...
Technology
24 Apr 2020
John Dobson: AML tax should be risk-based
John Dobson is chief executive of SmartSearch
Last month’s Budget was delivered in extraordinary circumstances.
There’s no way of telling exactly when the coronavirus crisis will pass, or what damage it...
Technology
24 Apr 2020
Rameez Zafar: Tech communication during virus crisis
Rameez Zafar is CEO of eligible.ai
Most UK businesses have now asked employees to work from home, in quarantine, avoiding human contact to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
So, what do...
General Insurance
24 Apr 2020
Geoff Hall: The UK has had a battering
Geoff Hall is chairman of Berkeley Alexander
Last month, two winter storms brought major flooding and the UK insurance industry is set to pay out £363m on claims.
Although the news agenda...
General Insurance
24 Apr 2020
Rob Evans: Protection during the COVID-19 pandemic
Rob Evans is CEO of Paymentshield
Every area of the UK economy has been hit by the outbreak of the coronavirus, and the mortgage market is no exception.
For advisers, this...
Protection
24 Apr 2020
Ben Burgess: Income protection or critical illness?
Ben Burgess is senior protection adviser at LifeSearch
Taking out decreasing life and critical illness cover for the full amount and term of the mortgage is a tried and tested means...
Protection
24 Apr 2020
Mike Allison: Protection can add real value right now
Mike Allison is head of protection at Paradigm Mortgage Services
'Life assurance needs to be sold not bought’ – not at the moment it doesn’t.
I am sure that many involved in...
Protection
24 Apr 2020
Kevin Carr: Pandemic protection
Kevin Carr is chief executive of Protection Review and MD of Carr Consulting
Like almost every other part of the economy, coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a huge impact on the protection...
Buy-to-Let
24 Apr 2020
Jane Simpson: Listening to landlords
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
As everyone in the UK is adjusting to the societal changes being imposed due to COVID-19, landlords will also be considering the financial impact...
Buy-to-Let
24 Apr 2020
Jeff Knight: Guiding clients through tough times
Jeff Knight is director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans
As we continue to operate in unprecedented times, the residential and private rented sectors will come under even more intense...
High Net Worth
24 Apr 2020
Peter Izard: A closer look at UHNW refinancing
Peter Izard is business development manager at Investec Private Bank
Expanding a large property portfolio is never easy. Every investor has different goals, and securing the necessary finance to quickly take...
Adverse
22 Apr 2020
Paul Adams: Painting a picture
Paul Adams is sales director at Pepper Money
At Pepper Money, we have recently completed the second round of our ongoing research into the attitudes and characteristics of potential mortgage customers...
Buy-to-Let
20 Apr 2020
Ying Tan: Finding answers in stressful times
Ying Tan is founder and chief executive of Dynamo
At the moment it’s tough to know what the next day will bring, or where to start when focusing on a particular...
First-time Buyers
20 Apr 2020
Anita Arch: Exploring untapped market potential
Anita Arch is head of mortgage sales at Saffron Building Society
The fact that many first-time buyers are struggling to get a foothold on the property ladder is nothing new.
Raising...
Buy-to-Let
19 Apr 2020
Bob Young: We must keep things functioning
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
Writing this in advance of the April issue of Mortgage Introducer has understandably been somewhat difficult.
Indeed, by the time you read...
Buy-to-Let
15 Apr 2020
Alan Cleary: Keeping up to date
Alan Cleary is group managing director of One Savings Bank
In these extraordinary times, landlords, like everyone else, can be forgiven if their minds are elsewhere. However, despite everything that’s going...
AMI
5 Apr 2020
Robert Sinclair: Keeping your customers safe
Robert Sinclair is chief executive officer of AMI
It’s hard to believe that, at the time of writing, it’s been less than two weeks since the UK went into lockdown and...
Technology
2 Apr 2020
Steve Goodall: Don’t forget the important stuff
Steve Goodall is CEO of ULS Technology
As I write this column, the UK is sliding into the grip of coronavirus-related lockdown.
Things change hourly, so trying to predict anything accurately or...
Protection
2 Apr 2020
Jeff Woods: How to stay ahead in changing times
Jeff Woods is campaigns and propositions director at Sesame Bankhall Group
As I write this on 25 March, world events are changing by the hour as further announcements are made and...
Equity Release
25 Mar 2020
Stuart Wilson: Getting the later life message right
Stuart Wilson is CEO of Air Group
When you consider the scope and the potential within the later life lending market, you have to get to grips with some sizeable figures....
Equity Release
25 Mar 2020
Alice Watson: After the rain comes the sun
Alice Watson is head of marketing and communications at Canada Life
Spring. The season of regeneration, revitalisation – and rain.
The Equity Release Council’s 2019 figures revealed that the market’s decade...
Equity Release
25 Mar 2020
Hattie Tales: Building a reputation in equity release
Hattie Tales is a BDM at Pure Retirement
The equity release market has been one of the success stories of the financial services sector in recent years.
In 2019 total lending...
Technology
25 Mar 2020
Steve Goodall: Changing the climate landscape
Steve Goodall is CEO of ULS Technology
Last year was important for many reasons. However, one of these reasons will have lasting and serious implications for the housing sector - the...
Equity Release
25 Mar 2020
David Lownds: A question of quantity or quality?
David Lownds is head of marketing and business development at Hanley Economic Building Society
How often do you see the relatively simple question - quality or quantity
This relates to goods...
Protection
25 Mar 2020
Charlotte Harrison: The importance of quality
Charlotte Harrison is product manager at iPipeline
I have just bought my first pram. Sorry, not pram - ‘Travel System’. It turned out that this purchase was not the straightforward process I...
Protection
24 Mar 2020
Mike Allison: How trust advice is getting simpler
Mike Allison is head of protection at Paradigm Mortgage Services
It is undoubtable that mortgage advisers in our industry want to do the best for their clients.
This isn’t necessarily down to...
Buy-to-Let
24 Mar 2020
Ying Tan: Rental demands buoying market
Ying Tan is founder and chief executive of Dynamo
Last month I stated that I hoped the government will not target landlords further – in terms of additional regulatory reforms or...
Buy-to-Let
24 Mar 2020
Bob Young: Expect an increase in buy-to-let activity
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
In a housing market that is so regionalised, it’s very difficult to make generalist assumptions or predictions, or indeed to talk about...
Buy-to-Let
24 Mar 2020
Jeff Knight: The keys to a strong market
Jeff Knight is director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans
The Boris Bounce or Brexit Bounce – whichever you prefer, if either - are cited as having a positive effect...
Buy-to-Let
24 Mar 2020
Jane Simpson: There’s a first time for everything
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
There has been a swathe of tax and regulatory changes impacting on the buy-to-let sector in recent years which may have affected the perception...
Adverse
24 Mar 2020
Paul Adams: Landlords and adverse credit
Paul Adams is sales director at Pepper Money
Buy-to-let is a market upon which a lot is written, and the consumer and trade press is frequently filled with commentary, analysis and...
IMLA
24 Mar 2020
Kate Davies: Fixing our broken housing market
Kate Davies is executive director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA)
Whilst Christopher Pincher’s appointment as the tenth housing minister in as many years has drawn some scepticism from market...
Market
21 Mar 2020
Robin Johnson: International investors eye capital
Robin Johnson is managing director of Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward Professional Services
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that UK average house prices rose 2.2% over...
Equity Release
15 Mar 2020
Claire Barker: Keeping standards up
Claire Barker is managing director of Equilaw
In December of last year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed that it had begun an ‘exploratory’ (though as yet informal) review of the...
AMI
5 Mar 2020
Robert Sinclair: A little top heavy
Robert Sinclair is chief executive officer of AMI
The long-awaited Policy Statement on Mortgage Advice and Selling Standards has now been published by the FCA.
Whilst the policy changes came into...
Market
2 Mar 2020
Craig Calder: A pre-Budget review
Craig Calder is director of mortgages at Barclays
At the time of writing, we sit on the cusp of a delayed Budget and something of a cabinet reshuffle.
With this in mind,...
Market
25 Feb 2020
Craig Calder: Looking at the opportunities
Craig Calder is director of mortgages at Barclays
In last month’s article I focused on a selection of points from UK Finance’s ‘The Changing Shape of the Mortgage Market’ report.
This...
Education
25 Feb 2020
Michael Nicholls: What’s in a name?
Michael Nicholls is relationship manager at LIBF
Titles and designations: for many of us they’re important signifiers of what we’ve achieved, the knowledge we’ve built and the level of professionalism...
Conveyancing
25 Feb 2020
Mark Snape: Have you seen the Boris Bounce?
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
Over a month into the new year, how has it been for you While there is still plenty of water to flow...
Conveyancing
25 Feb 2020
David Gilman: The perils of online conveyancing
David Gilman is partner in charge at Blacks Connect
Research conducted by the consultancy firm, IRN Research, has discovered that over 60% of consumers who purchased a property in the past...
Equity Release
25 Feb 2020
Claire Barker: Consumer debt and equity release
Claire Barker is managing director of Equilaw
Research published by the equity release lender, More2Life, has established that levels of unsecured borrowing are continuing to rise sharply amongst the over 55s,...
Market
25 Feb 2020
Ken Hale: Blurring mortgage product boundaries
Ken Hale is head of lending at Harpenden Building Society
Brexit, intercontinental trade wars, quantitative easing, house price escalation.
Back in 2000, when people were getting anxious about the Millennium Bug,...
Technology
25 Feb 2020
Steve Goodall: Change best delivered one step at a time
Steve Goodall is CEO of ULS Technology
Success stories in tech are becoming something of a rarity as we move into a new era of scrutiny.
It’s a truth that has...
Technology
25 Feb 2020
David Bennett: Looking ahead to mortgage tech 2025
David Bennett is commercial director at eKeeper
The year is 2025, a time of advancement and technological marvel, where we go to work or the shops in our rocket ships, safe...
Technology
25 Feb 2020
Neal Jannels: Joining the tech dots together
Neal Jannels is managing director of One Mortgage System (OMS)
Is 2020 finally the year that the mortgage market gets its act together and harnesses the power of fintech to improve...
Technology
25 Feb 2020
Alain Desmier: Always ask awkward questions
Alain Desmier is co-founder and managing director of Contact State
On a weekly basis, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) hands out rulings and fines to marketers and brands that break its...
Buy-to-Let
25 Feb 2020
Bob Young: More to the market than the Boris bounce
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
It has certainly been an interesting start to the year, with a degree of positivity around the UK housing market that wasn’t...
Buy-to-Let
25 Feb 2020
Jane Simpson: Landlords considering their options
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
As the end of the financial year approaches, buy-to-let investors will be mindful that mortgage interest tax relief will be phased out completely in...
Buy-to-Let
25 Feb 2020
Alan Cleary: Strength to return in 2020
Alan Cleary is managing director of Precise Mortgages
The start of a new year – a new decade for that matter – usually brings a round of predictions from industry experts....
Buy-to-Let
25 Feb 2020
Jeff Knight: Buy-to-let? More of the same, please
Jeff Knight is director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans
In most walks of life, a request to deliver ‘more of the same, please’ would be seen as a positive....
Buy-to-Let
25 Feb 2020
Paul Adams: Future lies with choice and opportunity
Paul Adams is sales director at Pepper Money
Few areas of the market attracts quite as much commentary as buy-to-let, possibly because of the sheer volume or regulatory and taxation changes...
Market
25 Feb 2020
Robin Johnson: London ready, steady and go for recovery
Robin Johnson is managing director of Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward Professional Services
London’s property market is often referred to as different from the rest of the UK, something which has...
Market
24 Feb 2020
Stuart Miller: Housing returns to the political agenda
Stuart Miller is customer director at Newcastle Building Society
The Budget is set for 11 March, and we are all waiting to see just how radical Sajid Javid is going to...
AMI
10 Feb 2020
Robert Sinclair: The dangerous devil in the detail
Robert Sinclair is chief executive officer of AMI
The long-awaited Policy Statement on Mortgage Advice and Selling Standards has now been published by the FCA. Whilst the policy changes came into...
Equity Release
2 Feb 2020
Stuart Wilson: Squaring the consumer circle
Stuart Wilson is CEO of Air Group
It is incredibly early days in both this new year, and new decade, but I get the sense from many others working in the...
General Insurance
1 Feb 2020
Rob Evans: A look inside a GI provider
Rob Evans is CEO of Paymentshield
I usually use this column to talk about the market, the opportunities within general insurance (GI) and ideas that could help you to grow your...
Education
25 Jan 2020
Michael Nicholls: Attracting a new generation of advisers
Michael Nicholls is relationship manager at LIBF
The mortgage and financial advice industry face a growing problem – we, like the customers we serve, are an aging population.
Various figures...
Technology
25 Jan 2020
Steve Goodall: Remortgages need a rethink
Steve Goodall is CEO of ULS Technology
You might think that lawyers voting for less law would be akin to turkeys voting for Christmas.
In many cases, you could well be...
Equity Release
25 Jan 2020
Alice Watson: Home finance options for ageing society
Alice Watson is head of marketing and communications at Canada Life
As we look back on the decade, I suspect that most of us are feeling older, but not all the...
Equity ReleaseSurveying
25 Jan 2020
Kevin Webb: The evolving nature of later life lending
Kevin Webb is managing director of Legal & General Surveying Services
In 2019, the number of households in the UK grew by 249,000 from the previous year to 27.8 million, a...
General Insurance
25 Jan 2020
Geoff Hall: Endings and new beginnings?
Geoff Hall is chairman of Berkeley Alexander
The start of a New Year always turns thoughts to resolutions and new beginnings.
It may feel counter intuitive to be planning exit strategies...
General Insurance
25 Jan 2020
Paul Thompson: Let’s start banging the FloodRe drum
Paul Thompson is founder and CEO of Cavere Intermediary
Flooding in Fishlake, the most recent in a series of major floods to hit the UK in recent years, has once...
Equity Release
25 Jan 2020
Claire Barker: Improving knowledge for all
Claire Barker is managing director of Equilaw
Quarterly figures from the Equity Release Council have revealed that the equity release (ER) sector is continuing to grow at a staggering rate, with...
Buy-to-Let
25 Jan 2020
Anita Arch: Helping clients with expat buy-to-let
Anita Arch is head of mortgage sales at Saffron Building Society
For many, the opportunity to live and work abroad has great appeal.
However, becoming an ‘expat’ comes with a myriad...
Protection
25 Jan 2020
Kevin Carr: Reflections on IP
Kevin Carr is chief executive of Protection Review and MD of Carr Consulting
It’s been a great year for income protection (IP).
Thanks to a combination of raised awareness, product innovation...
Buy-to-Let
25 Jan 2020
Jane Simpson: 2020 vision for buy-to-let
Jane Simpson is managing director of TBMC
It is expected that gross buy-to-let lending in 2019 will be recorded at around £37bn but what are the prospects for this sector in...
Buy-to-Let
25 Jan 2020
Ying Tan: Learn from the trends of 2019
Ying Tan is founder and chief executive of Dynamo
The UK housing market is a multi-faceted beast containing hundreds of micro marketplaces.
Each have their own collection of conditions and challenges which...
Buy-to-Let
25 Jan 2020
Bob Young: We finally have some certainty
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
Elections by their very nature are divisive events and, given our political climate over the past few years, they tend to be...
Buy-to-Let
25 Jan 2020
Jeff Knight: Finding the broker opportunities
Jeff Knight is director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans
I recently put together a presentation for one of our distribution partners and an adviser-based audience.
This provided a great...
Market
25 Jan 2020
Robin Johnson: Our resilient market needed a break
Robin Johnson is managing director of Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward Professional Services
It feels as though we have been writing the same column month in, month out for more than...
Buy-to-Let
15 Jan 2020
Alan Cleary: What does 2020 hold in store?
Alan Cleary is managing director of Precise Mortgages
I'm not typically one for Mystic Meg-style predictions, but this year I think there are a few trends that are likely to persist...
Market
15 Jan 2020
Peter Izard: The outlook for London property
Peter Izard is business development manager at Investec Private Bank
There’s reason to believe that 2020 could prove a turning point for the prime London property market.
Research from Savills suggests that...
Adverse
15 Jan 2020
Paul Adams: The right mortgage for a client in a DMP
Paul Adams is sales director at Pepper Money
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has recently published the sixth round of its Wealth and Assets Survey, which includes detailed information on...
Equity Release
14 Jan 2020
Stuart Wilson: Welcome to the roaring twenties
Stuart Wilson is CEO of Air Group
Welcome to a New Year and indeed a new decade.
As the ‘roaring twenties’ begin, I can’t help think of the George Michael song, ‘Waiting...
General Insurance
14 Jan 2020
Rob Evans: A guide to increasing GI sales
Rob Evans is CEO of Paymentshield
The propensity for borrowers to take 5-year fixed rates and the growing popularity of product transfers will put pressure on brokers future earnings.
As such the...
Protection
14 Jan 2020
Mike Allison: Let’s continue the protection positivity
Mike Allison is head of protection at Paradigm Mortgage Services
As we start another year we might be already wondering if we’ve kept those New Year resolutions we set out on...
Conveyancing
10 Jan 2020
Mark Snape: 2020 looks set to be a good year
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it’s been interesting to listen to all the political commentators who ‘knew full well’ that Boris...
Market
15 Dec 2019
Paul Adams: A great reason to pick up the phone
Paul Adams is sales director at Pepper Money
Christmas can be the most wonderful, and expensive, time of the year.
So, it is fair to assume that over the coming weeks the...
Buy-to-Let
15 Dec 2019
Ken Hale: Holiday lets – a growing opportunity
Ken Hale is head of lending at Harpenden Building Society
As sterling continues to come under pressure, and speculation rises about the ease of travel to other parts of Europe, the...
Market
15 Dec 2019
Peter Izard: The surprising opportunity in HNW remortgages
Peter Izard is business development manager at Investec Private Bank
How are you planning to achieve your targets next year
Planning can be difficult in an uncertain political environment, but one thing...
Market
15 Dec 2019
Stuart Miller: It turns out size really does matter
Stuart Miller is customer director at Newcastle Building Society
As a smaller lender than some, we have both advantages and disadvantages.
We don’t have snazzy online algorithms that underwrite borrower applications...
Market
15 Dec 2019
Craig Calder: The wonderful world of mortgages
Craig Calder is director of intermediaries at Barclays Mortgages
As 2019 comes to a close, it’s not unreasonable to say that it has proved to be a challenging yet eventful year...
AMI
13 Dec 2019
Robert Sinclair: Cultural awareness
Robert Sinclair is chief executive at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI)
As a responsible trade body, AMI has always wanted an effective and efficient regulator.
In the FCA we have...
Protection
18 Nov 2019
Steve Ellis: All in our debt
Steve Ellis is head of risk and protection at Premier Choice Group
We are all in the business of debt – mortgage brokers, healthcare intermediaries, IFAs.
Hopefully by selling protection, household or...
Protection
18 Nov 2019
Jeff Woods: Appreciating where advisers add value
Jeff Woods is campaigns and propositions director at Sesame Bankhall Group
Over recent months we’ve been undertaking a large-scale insight project to gauge our understanding of the protection market from different...
Protection
18 Nov 2019
Andy Philo: Now’s the time to discuss IP
Andy Philo is director strategic partnerships and employee distribution at Vitality
It’s still assumed that term life insurance comes top in the hierarchy of protection needs.
While a homeowner’s life insurance pay...
General Insurance
18 Nov 2019
Charlotte Harrison: From the mediaeval reformation to protection
Charlotte Harrison is product manager at iPipeline
Like most history graduates I knew straightaway that insurance was the only industry I wanted to work in. It was a no brainer to...
Protection
18 Nov 2019
Kevin Carr: Getting in early
Kevin Carr is chief executive of Protection Review and managing director of Carr Consulting & Communications
With mental health underwriting becoming ever more topical it’s great to see insurers announcing new...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2019
Jane Simpson: Buy-to-let innovations
Jane Simpson is managing director at TBMC
The buy-to-let mortgage market has come under pressure in recent years due to the multitude of tax and regulatory changes aimed at the sector.
However,...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2019
Ying Tan: Tracking the trends for buy-to-let
Ying Tan is founder and chief executive at Dynamo
Last month I looked at how the value attached to the advice process should never be underestimated. This was alongside the importance...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2019
Bob Young: There is more to a decision than rates
Bob Young is chief executive officer at Fleet Mortgages
In our market there can be a tendency to put the cart before the horse, especially when it comes to analysing and...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2019
Alan Cleary: Lies, damn lies and statistics
Alan Cleary is group managing director at Precise Mortgages
I always tend to take stories which contain statistics with a big pinch of salt. I’ve been around long enough to know...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2019
Jeff Knight: The buy-to-let market is a mixed bag for now
Jeff Knight is director of marketing at Foundation Home Loans
We’re all acutely aware of the uncertainty that exists within political circles and the UK economy.
This means that buy-to-let lenders are...
Buy-to-Let
18 Nov 2019
Chris Maggs: A brighter future for buy-to-let
Chris Maggs is senior commercial manager at Accord Buy To Let
After what feels like many months of negative press on the buy-to-let market, the most recent lending figures from UK...
Education
18 Nov 2019
Michael Nicholls: Preparing for regulatory changes from the FCA
Michael Nicholls is relationship director at LIBF
The FCA Consultation on mortgage advice and selling standards (CP19/17) has just closed, after May’s report highlighting some key aspects of the current mortgage...
Market
18 Nov 2019
Robin Johnson: Why the sum of the parts matter to customers
Robin Johnson is managing director of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward Professional Services
In a property market that presents as many opportunities and challenges as the current one, I am constantly being...
Adverse
18 Nov 2019
Paul Adams: There are 1.26 million reasons to read this article
Paul Adams is sales director at Pepper Money
The mortgage market is awash with high level data about the number of CCJs and defaults that are helping to drive the growth...
Expats
18 Nov 2019
Anita Arch: Expats on the move
Anita Arch is head of mortgage sales at Saffron Building Society
Over the past five years, the UK news has focussed on the number of people coming here to live from...
Market
18 Nov 2019
Stuart Miller: All together now for the good of everyone
Stuart Miller is customer director at Newcastle Building Society
I recently read a blog by Capital Economics’ group chief economist, Neil Shearing, arguing that globalisation has ‘peaked’.
He argued that ‘there is...
18 Nov 2019
Craig Calder: Maintaining first-time buyer sector momentum
Craig Calder is director of intermediaries at Barclays Mortgages
In last month’s piece I focused on how important good quality professional advice is, in terms of offering access to the right...
AMI
18 Nov 2019
Robert Sinclair: Goldilocks forgets the porridge
Robert Sinclair is chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries
After a process as long as Brexit, the FCA has finally coughed up its new affordability rules to deal with...
AMI
18 Nov 2019
Robert Sinclair: SM&CR is now upon us
Robert Sinclair is chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries
Remember, remember the 9th of December. This is, or was depending on when you read this, the magic date when...
AMI
9 Oct 2019
Robert Sinclair: The bigger ticking bombs
Robert Sinclair is chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries
The market appears stable, with forecasts suggesting that transactions will reach 1.2 million in 2019, in line with the long-term...
Buy-to-Let
9 Oct 2019
Ying Tan: Don’t underestimate the value of advice
Ying Tan is chief executive of Dynamo
We’re all at the coalface of the advice process and used to seeking answers to some difficult questions – whether these are from clients,...
Protection
9 Oct 2019
Mike Allison: Firms go extra mile on mental health
Mike Allison is head of protection at Paradigm Mortgage Services
There has been much discussion recently about access to insurance for people with mental health difficulties and there is still a...
Protection
9 Oct 2019
Andy Philo: Should mortgage protection be mandatory?
Andy Philo is director strategic partnerships and employee distribution at Vitality
There’s a long-running debate about whether it should be compulsory for people to buy protection when taking out a mortgage....
Equity Release
9 Oct 2019
Steve Ellis: Helping out family safely
Steve Ellis is head of risk and protection at Premier Choice Group
The difficulties young people are facing getting on the housing market ladder are well documented.
The disparity between earnings...
Equity Release
9 Oct 2019
Claire Barker: The risks of Retirement Interest-Only
Claire Barker is managing director of Equilaw
At the National Later Life Adviser Conference in June, former FCA mortgage policy manager, Lynda Blackwell questioned the residential approach that the regulator had...
Equity Release
9 Oct 2019
Alice Watson: Supporting advisers is key to growth
Alice Watson is head of marketing and communications at Canada Life Home Finance
Whether it’s relationships, a job offer or selecting the right home finance product, expert and trusted advice helps...
General Insurance
9 Oct 2019
Geoff Hall: Objects of desire
Geoff Hall is chairman of Berkeley Alexander
It is important to keep jewellery valuations on GI policies up to date. Diamond prices in particular saw spikes between 2005 and 2010 and...
General Insurance
9 Oct 2019
Rob Evans: Now is the time to future-proof your business
Rob Evans is CEO of Paymentshield
How do you choose the right GI partner to work with Traditionally, the key considerations have been risk footprint, breadth of cover, the number and quality...
General Insurance
9 Oct 2019
Paul Thompson: Should brokers subscribe to the subscription model?
Paul Thompson founder and CEO of Cavere Intermediary
I’ll admit I was sceptical when the first subscription insurance product launched last year. If I’m honest I struggled to see how it...
Adverse
9 Oct 2019
Paul Adams: Laying the foundations to your new opportunity
Paul Adams is sales director at Pepper Money
How much do we know and understand about the changing trends and demographics of your potential clients and why is this important to...
Protection
9 Oct 2019
Charlotte Harrison: Unlocking protection potential
Charlotte Harrison is product manager at iPipeline
I was recently shown an advert online for a homemade canoe. The description read: ‘I built this canoe in 2009 using marine ply, tape...
Buy-to-Let
9 Oct 2019
Bob Young: Labour’s plans could open a can of worms
Bob Young is chief executive officer of Fleet Mortgages
The political situation is moving so quickly that it seems slightly pointless to speculate on the policies and measures that have been...
Buy-to-Let
9 Oct 2019
Jane Simpson: Limited company buy-to-let on the rise
Jane Simpson is managing director at TBMC
At TBMC, we have seen a significant rise in the number of limited company buy-to-let applications being submitted.
Since the beginning of 2019, over 25%...
Buy-to-Let
9 Oct 2019
Kevin Webb: Cladding is a problem for everyone
Kevin Webb is managing director of Legal & General Surveying Services
It is more than two years since the tragedy at Grenfell, and still there is a huge amount of confusion...
Market
9 Oct 2019
Stuart Miller: We all need to do more for our intermediaries
Stuart Miller is customer director at Newcastle Building Society
Earlier this month we welcomed John Truswell as our new head of intermediary mortgages.
John has more than 30 years’ experience in...
Technology
9 Oct 2019
Kevin Paterson: Cause versus effect
Kevin Paterson
As a British Gas customer and keen technology enthusiast, I have been an enthusiastic adopter of the Hive smart home platform created by Centrica, the parent company of British...
Conveyancing
9 Oct 2019
David Gilman: Getting the simple things right
David Gilman is partner in charge, Blacks Connect
It is customary when judging the relative merits or deficiencies of modern conveyancing practices, or of evaluating standards of service within the industry,...
Conveyancing
9 Oct 2019
Mark Snape: Now isn’t the time to rest on your laurels
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
Over a decade on from the Credit Crunch, it’s clear to see that we are a long way down the road from that...
Technology
9 Oct 2019
Steve Goodall: Ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law
Steve Goodall is chief executive at ULS Technology
According to UK Finance, last year the advanced security systems and innovations in which the finance industry invests to protect customers stopped more...
Market
9 Oct 2019
Simon Taylor: Adapting to the latest market challenges
Simon Taylor is chief commercial officer at Saffron Building Society
Saffron Building Society celebrates its 170th birthday this year.
At the start of the year, our chief executive Colin Field talked...
Education
9 Oct 2019
Michael Nicholls: Should smaller firms pool their resources?
Michael Nicholls is relationship director at LIBF
The recent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Consultation on mortgage advice and selling standards appeared to roll back on its own 2014 regulations.
One of...
Market
9 Oct 2019
John Phillips: The B-word is still impacting activity
John Phillips is national operations director at Just Mortgages and Spicerhaart
The latest UK Finance Mortgage Trends Report revealed that, after propping up the market for some time, remortgaging fell for...
Buy-to-Let
9 Oct 2019
Jeff Knight: Learning from the changes
Jeff Knight is director of marketing of Foundation Home Loans
In order to look forward, it’s also prudent to sometimes look back.
Understanding how the buy-to-let sector has been reshaped and...
Market
9 Oct 2019
Robin Johnson: Delivering value is more important than ever
Robin Johnson is managing director of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward Professional Services
All businesses know that establishing strong, long relationships with their clients is good for the bottom line.
It doesn’t matter...
Market
9 Oct 2019
Craig Calder: Consumers need brokers more than ever
Craig Calder is director of intermediaries at Barclays Mortgages
We talk a lot in the industry about how the mortgage market has evolved though tech advances, product innovation and criteria enhancements...
Buy-to-Let
9 Oct 2019
Alan Cleary: The continued rise of portfolio buy-to-let
Alan Cleary is managing director of Precise Mortgages
It doesn’t surprise me to read that, for the first time, more than half of lenders are now offering limited company buy-to-let...
Buy-to-Let
8 Oct 2019
Chris Maggs: A brighter future for buy-to-let
Chris Maggs is senior commercial manager at Accord Buy To Let
After what feels like many months of negative press on the buy-to-let market, the most recent lending figures from UK...