Supply and demand. It’s an age old driver for price rises in economies and it’s never really changed throughout history.

The UK mortgage market has some exceptional opportunities for strong demand in 2025 however for the last five years there’s been an undersupply of new advisers joining the industry.

Why could there be so much demand in 2025?

Around 1.8 million fixed rates are coming to an end; house prices are continuing to rise; salaries are continuing to rise – the median average for the UK in 2024 was £37,430, 6.9% higher than the previous year; rates are trending downwards with more BoE base rate cuts expected this year; there are ambitious house building targets of 370,000 new homes a year; and talk of changes to the LTI rules.

So there’s huge demand for mortgage advisers and we’re working with lots of clients all looking for talented advisers. But why is the industry faced with a declining number of advisers?

Paul Day of Network Consulting recently submitted a public access request with the FCA and this highlighted a drop of around 1,500 mortgage advisers in the industry. An alarming figure but also not too surprising when you factor in what the industry has gone through in the last five years:  the Covid pandemic; the 2022 mini budget; the Ukraine/Russia war; high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

Why are there fewer advisers?

The above points aren’t the direct reasons why there are fewer advisers, contributory yes but not the direct reasons. One of the main reasons for fewer advisers is that there are fewer brokerages and financial intermediaries that are willing to invest in trainee advisers.

The underpinning of a mortgage advisor is consultative sales and with it being a sales-based role, an employer needs a return on their investment. Unfortunately for trainees, they’re often not profitable for a while as there’s so much to learn and there’s a large time investment from an employer. This leads to many firms simply wanting experienced advisers that have been trained by someone else but that’s a catch 22.

Perhaps what we need to see are more firms bringing in individuals who want to become an advisor, have them provide administration and customer support whilst they learn their trade. Then gradually transition their role into an advisory role under close supervision. In this scenario, the individual’s provided commercial value with their admin support and they’ve learnt what good looks like before transitioning into an advisor.

Let’s not forget the importance of apprenticeship schemes and the level of support granted for bringing in individuals via this method as well. Not only are they cost-effective but they can be trained in useful areas for businesses where there may otherwise be a skills shortage.

Whichever way we achieve it though, the simple fact is that we need more trainee’s entering into the industry or we’ll see a decreasing number of advisers in the sector.

What about experienced advisers?

For experienced advisers considering a change, they’re spoilt for choice especially if they’re considering a self-employed platform. There are so many different types of companies, roles and propositions available to them. This then becomes a challenge for brokerages and financial intermediaries as they’re pitting themselves against a large number of alternative options.

It’s important for any company hiring on an employed or self employed basis to really consider – why should someone join us over someone else? If that’s not easy to answer, then you need to switch up your proposition and make it more attractive to the people you want to onboard.

Specific to the self-employed market, there are so many options available but unfortunately many advisers have experienced undelivered promises in the past. This leads to individuals being highly sceptical with new propositions.

Let’s also talk about salaries, the national average median salary in 2024 was £37,430, a 6.9% increase on the year before. We haven’t seen brokerages keep pace with this and that can also explain the reducing number of advisers we’ve seen. Mortgage advisor salaries simply haven’t changed much in recent years. The companies who are securing the best people are keeping pace with this though.

As the market heats up this year with increasing demand for advisers and a reduced supply of them, we hope to see some welcome changes within the industry. This includes increased trainee opportunities; increased salaries for advisers and increased performances for existing advisers, for instance more fact finds, more sign-ups and more commission overall.

Will Betts is commercial manager at Integro Partners