Specialist mortgage lenders once again offered a home to borrowers who had fallen through the cracks of mainstream mortgage lenders’ criteria last year — ensuring that no borrower was left behind.
As financial pressures kept mounting for many borrowers, specialist lenders continued to support brokers and their clients through some challenging lending scenarios.
Once again, 17 lenders have been assessed in Mortgage Finance Gazette’s Rated for Service specialist category. And, in a repeat of last year, four lenders have achieved the coveted Top Rated for Service status, while another four earned Rated for Service status.
The rankings remain largely stable, with Precise Mortgages climbing to Top Rated status from Rated last year. Meanwhile, Foundation Home Loans has made its debut in the specialist category, securing Rated for Service recognition.
Intermediary-only brands continue to dominate the Top Rated and Rated for Service specialist rankings, demonstrating just how important the sector is to the broker community and in helping borrowers with their non-standard needs.
However, despite their ties to the specialist sector, no building societies feature in either the Top Rated or Rated for Service category. Interestingly, four of the eight lenders commended for specialist mortgages have also secured mainstream accolades: Aldermore, Bank of Ireland, Kensington Mortgages and Pepper Money.
This may suggest that the line between specialist and mainstream lenders is becoming increasingly blurred as borrower demographics evolve. Notably, no lenders that brokers would traditionally deem to be mainstream feature in this year’s specialist rankings.
Those specialist lenders that have achieved Top Rated status excelled consistently across every category. By contrast, those in the Rated tier show more variation, albeit with technology emerging as one of the weakest areas — perhaps reflecting the challenge of blending a hands-on approach with a strong digital experience.
Strategic focus earned the highest standalone score among specialist lenders — a testament to the sector’s long-standing commitment to the intermediary market?
All Rated for Service data is accessed via the dashboard. The ratings data for each lender category, and the rankings data for each assessment area, is available from the past four years. Lenders’ performance in any of the five assessment areas can be ranked across the entire lender panel for each lender category, and year.
Factor analysis is also available for each lender category to enable benchmarking across a panel of lenders versus the average score for each assessment area. This can be filtered by broker type and case load, providing tailored benchmarks for individual brokers (max. of five lenders).
Please see the specialist lender dashboard below:
