A further 22% of property and commercial finance brokers responding to UTB’s recent Broker Sentiment Survey believed that continued success of the COVID-19 vaccination programme would be most important to their performance for the remainder of the year.
Other factors noted by brokers were the continued support of the property market and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) by the government, overcoming Brexit challenges, and the ability to recruit high calibre staff.
An estimated 88% of the more than 130 respondents declared that they were ready to respond to a ‘post-pandemic boom’ fuelled by government spending and pent-up consumer demand.
However, 6% of brokers indicated that they were still regrouping following the trials of the pandemic and the remaining 6% did not expect to see a post-pandemic boom at all.
Mark Stokes, chief commercial officer at UTB, said: “Although the UK economy still has some way to go to regain its COVID-19 losses, it does at least appear to be growing and there’s certainly plenty of activity in the specialist finance market.
“UTB is experiencing record levels of enquiries and new business completions across all divisions of the bank including bridging, development, structured, mortgage and asset finance.
“Records are being broken and reset on a regular basis and like a majority of brokers, we believe we’re very well placed to respond positively to a post-pandemic boom.
“I’m delighted that UTB’s continued investment in technology and people is enabling us to support brokers as they assist property developers, investors, SMEs and individuals in seizing opportunities to recover and grow as we emerge from the tight grip of the pandemic.”
