During my career, I’ve seen the mortgage market transformed beyond recognition.

When I started my career more than three decades ago, intermediaries accounted for a much smaller part of the market. Many customers went directly to lenders – with intermediary business accounting for only around half of all mortgage lending. Brokers increasingly found their role was best placed helping customers with more specialist needs and circumstances.

There was also far less choice in terms of mortgage options. That began to change significantly about 30 years ago as new lenders entered the market and sectors such as buy-to-let and specialist lending developed. New propositions opened up possibilities for customers with more complex income, criteria or credit histories, while the fact that many of these new lenders distributed these products solely through brokers fuelled the growth of the intermediary market.

Faxes and telephone boxes

At the start of my career, applications were handwritten and completed on paper and posted to lenders. Product updates arrived by fax and advisers would call lenders to check their latest rates. Working as a business development manager was also very different. There were no mobile phones, so telephone boxes and A to Z maps to find brokers’ offices were part of everyday working life.

This feels a world away from where we are now. Alongside technology, regulation has helped to professionalise the industry. The introduction of the Mortgage Code and the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice (CeMAP) in 1997, followed by MCOB in 2024 and MMR following the Credit Crunch in 2014, have all played their part in this.

Relationships still matter most

Perhaps one of the most important shifts I’ve seen is how different parts of the market work together. There have been times when the balance of power has sat more heavily with lenders, and others when brokers have been driving the agenda. Today that relationship feels more balanced, with lenders and intermediaries working together with the customer at the centre.

That matters because, while the mechanics surrounding a mortgage have changed, the importance of those relationships has not. A customer still wants to buy a home, remortgage or find the right solution for their circumstances, and brokers and lenders collaborate to make this happen.

Brokers are the key

What is clear though, is that in today’s world, the case for advice is even stronger. Before Covid, for example, customers might have been choosing a product based on relatively small differences on very low rates. Today, there are more complex circumstances – and decisions – to navigate. Customers must consider whether a two, three or five-year deal is appropriate, or a tracker mortgage, or even whether an offset product might better meet their needs. Brokers can fully understand the customer’s circumstances and help to navigate those decisions.

For first-time buyers, deposit and affordability have always been fundamental challenges. But the context in which they are tackling them has changed. In the past, house prices were  lower relative to income, and the journey up the property ladder often looked very different too. Buyers would start with a relatively small property and move every five or six years. Today, people may start that journey later, potentially when they already have a partner or family and therefore need a larger home from the outset, so there are additional hurdles to address.

This underlines the value of advice today. Research from Accord‘s recent report, No Way Home? Restoring Britain’s Housing Ladder highlighted its transformative impact, with more than seven in ten (71%) people who had used mortgage advice services saying it made it easier for them to buy a home.

A resilient market

The credit crunch remains the most challenging period I have experienced in the mortgage market. However, what this, and other crises since, did demonstrate, was the resilience of the mortgage industry. Regardless of what the future holds, what we do know is that people will want to own homes and will continue to need broker support to make it happen.

As for what comes next, technology and AI feel certain to play a major role in the next stage of the market’s evolution. And that need not be a threat – the challenge is to use it in the right way.

Technology has the potential to simplify processes and make brokers more efficient, freeing them up to spend more time with their customers. Complex financial decisions will always benefit from human expertise, judgement and an understanding of a customer’s personal circumstances.

The industry may be almost unrecognisable from the one I joined, but its fundamental purpose remains the same – helping people find a place to call home.

As I contemplate my retirement at the end of the year, I believe that although technology and AI will continue to reshape how we work, brokers will remain at the centre of a resilient, accessible and customer-focused mortgage market.

Jeremy Duncombe is managing director of Accord Mortgages