Spring has officially sprung and yet again I was caught out by the clocks going forward.

It really has been amazing to see what a difference a bit of nice weather makes and, while I never thought it really affected me, I now know it does. A bit of sun helps and the days getting longer gives me an extra skip in my step, which is certainly needed for the average broker these days.

It is a busy old market once more and, while I do feel solidarity and love seeing the social posts of brokers working late nights, early mornings and weekends, we have to remember that there must be some downtime. There must be some time for you, before burnout sets in.

It looks like we have a more stable and sustainable housing market

We also need to be careful about what message this sends out to others, perhaps stressing them into thinking they should be that busy or should be working that late. I’m as guilty of it as anyone, but the last thing we want to do is inadvertently affect the mental health of others.

That said, the passion that we have to do the best for our clients is still evident in spades and one of the things that makes this industry so amazing.

While #Partygate is back in the news and we wait to see if Boris will get a notice from the police or not, we had a less than exciting Spring Statement from the chancellor who did not seem to go far enough to help those worried about the cost-of-living crisis. Future tax cuts do not help the situation now and it does seem that overall the rises outweigh the cuts in any case. So things will continue to feel harder for many before they begin to get better.

It is important that lenders continue to communicate honestly with brokers

What effect this has on the property market, people’s borrowing capacity or consumer sentiment remains to be seen.

Strong demand

There have, however, been a few interesting reports out in the past week that show the resilience of the property market. Zoopla, for example, reported that demand for houses was up a staggering 65% against the five-year average, with demand for family homes “more than twice as high as usual for Q1”.

It also found that supply was starting to improve slightly and, while house price growth is expected to ease substantially in the second half of the year, there is every indication that transaction levels will continue to move back to pre-pandemic levels, “resulting in 1.2 million transactions this year”.

The passion that we have to do the best for our clients is still evident in spades

Gross mortgage lending has increased to £26.1bn in February, while net mortgage borrowing dipped slightly, as did the number of mortgage approvals for house purchases, though the value of these increased. Approvals for remortgages increased, as did the average interest rate paid on new mortgages.

All of this is to be expected given the current conditions, but looking with a helicopter view on all these reports it looks like we have a more stable and sustainable housing market rather than one helped by artificial government stimulus. This should bode well for the immediate future – Russian invasions aside.

In the money markets, three-month Sonia has almost doubled, up 0.52% at 1.05%, and swap rates continue to reach for the sky.

Since the last column:

• 2-year money is up 0.61% at 2.09%
• 3-year money is up 0.61% at 2.10%
• 5-year money is up 0.59% at 1.99%
• 10-year money is up 0.50% at 1.77%

In light of the above, rate wise we are still seeing last-minute rate changes from lenders trying to battle both the money markets and consumer demand as some start to struggle with service levels.

Changing rates

It is important that lenders continue to communicate honestly with brokers. We understand how difficult it is for lenders playing the rate, market-share, service, margin, etc balancing act.

However, the more open they are with us, the more we can help and manage client expectations accordingly. We are a partnership.

It has never been so important to have a strong trade body

There were a couple of reports that showed how much professional mortgage advisers are needed at present. Moneypenny observed that financial services over the past three months saw an increase in call volumes by 30%, with customers actively wanting to speak to a real person in depth about their finances, and not a robot.

This is especially true as the cost of living continues to rise and they need proper advice and reassurance.

It really seems to be pointless discussing rates in this column at the moment, as no sooner have I written the sentence the rate has already changed, but criteria-wise there are a couple of things of note from our lovely lenders.

The more open lenders are with us, the more we can help and manage client expectations accordingly

HSBC is reducing the sole applicant minimum income criteria for interest-only applications from £100,000 to £75,000 per annum, and is changing its joint income threshold from £40,000 to £50,000 for borrowers to obtain a higher income multiple.

Buckinghamshire Building Society is the latest lender to enter into the growing holiday let market, while the quietly impressive Skipton will now lend on buy-to-let (BTL) new-build flats up to 75% LTV, and it has also reduced its stress rate for landlords on five-year fixes to 4.5%.

On the subject of Skipton, do check out its new Skipton Talks podcasts with the effortlessly natural broadcaster Rachael Hunnisett. Derek Adams is very good too. Another great addition from a lender to join the ranks of Barclays and the excellent stalwarts Accord, among others.

Go green

I was also interested to see a report from Mortgages for Business that noted there were now 353 green products available for BTL. A year ago, there were only four. This shows the direction of travel and that the first question asked by brokers should be: ‘What is your property’s EPC rating?’

A couple of reports show how much professional mortgage advisers are needed at present

Finally, it’s Happy Birthday to the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (Ami), which celebrates its 10th anniversary.

That’s 10 years of fighting our corner, shielding us from over-zealous regulation, helping to reduce costs, educating those at the FCA and government as to the hard work we all do for consumers, effecting change and thought leadership, whether this be in protection or diversity and inclusion, and for being the last one at the bar!

It has never been so important to have a strong trade body and hat’s off to Robert, Stacey, Claire and the teams and boards for their amazing work now and over the years.

Andrew Montlake is a director at Coreco