Laying out the future direction of the business is an integral part of any executive job. But there are times when you have to take stock and acknowledge the hard work of everyone that has made the headline results of the past few months achievable.
When we look back over the past year and a half, understandably, most of the headlines focus upon the big decisions. Were the government’s interventions timely, apt, or effective?
Regardless of your personal view, one thing is certain – in this market it took real people working incredibly hard to make any interventions a triumph rather than a damp squib.
The Covid-19 pandemic threw the market into chaos yet with the industry’s willingness to find different ways of doing things, out of necessity perhaps but executed nevertheless, people have moved homes, refinanced their properties and in many instances started new lives.
We should not forget the difficulties, losses and sadness of recent months but neither should we neglect to thank everyone who helped get us through it.
Financial services is understandably not likely to get many plaudits in comparison to front line services – and that is as it should be.
But we can afford a quiet thank you among ourselves. For what it is worth, if you want to see the fruits of our collective hard yards then look no further than the Financial Services Authority figures for the first quarter of 2021 which paint a vivid picture of the record level of effort that has been required of recent months.
Their data shows that home movers dominated the mortgage market in the first quarter of 2021, accounting for a record proportion of home loans being handed out.
The share for house purchase for owner occupation was 64.1%, up 17.3 percentage points from 2020 Q1. In fact, the sector accounted for 42% of gross mortgage lending, the highest share since the records started in 2007.
The home mover figures were part of an overall increased volume of mortgage lending. The value of gross mortgage advances was £83.3 billion in 2021 Q1, 26.5% higher last year, and the highest level since 2007 Q4.
The pandemic has placed a lot of stress on many parts of the mortgage value chain – and continues to do so as products are launched and withdrawn, borrowers’ circumstances become more complex and government incentives fire up (or quell) lender appetites.
All of this has been met with a rise in demand for home moving as the pandemic and working from home phenomenon have allowed people to reassess what they want from their property and where they feel they need to be to work or seek employment.
Our surveyors and valuers have continued to work as hard as any group of people notwithstanding the difficulties last year’s market lockdown created and the ongoing issues faced by those conducting physical inspections.
Demand in the short-term shows no sign of abating and my suspicion is that many of the ways of operating that began as an emergency response will become business as usual for lenders, valuers, conveyancers, brokers and borrowers.
I think however acknowledging the hard work and success, albeit in the hardest working environment in my living memory, is important.
Big decisions need to be followed up by big actions and I am proud of everyone in our company who has been an essential part of delivering the results we have seen to date.
Steve Goodall is managing director of e.surv
