In a recent survey of more than 200 intermediaries, 71% said they were either confident (65%) or very confident (6%) in the market’s prospects for the next 12 months, while a quarter (25%) were unsure.
Only 3% of intermediaries surveyed said they were not confident in the market’s prospects for the coming year.
Rob Barnard, director of intermediaries at Masthaven Bank, commented: “Broker confidence is holding up well and that’s such an important part of the market, as it directly feeds through into the conversations intermediaries are having with customers.
“Now that the housing market has reopened and with the news that mortgage payment relief may be extended to help those customers in need, it’s good to see positive sentiment for the next twelve months from the intermediary community.”
Customer communication
The survey also found that more than half (51%) of specialist lending intermediaries are now using video calls to liaise with their customers, while 42% are sending regular email updates.
A small proportion of brokers have introduced live chat platforms on their websites (4%) or extended their opening hours (2%) since the start of the pandemic.
Nearly a third (32%) of specialist lending intermediaries said that they are recommending lenders based on their access to reliable funding.
Jon Hall, chief commercial officer and deputy CEO at Masthaven Bank, said: “Masthaven has remained open for business throughout the crisis. We have continued to work with intermediary partners to ensure they have access to a good range of competitive products.
“We have adapted our service offerings, launching a fee-free remortgage range in response to broker demand and increased our use of AVMs where physical valuations have not been possible. Our offices may be closed but we remain open for business.”
Masthaven recently announced it would be accepting desktop AVMs on bridging finance cases up to 60% LTV (previously the limit was 50%) and has increased the maximum loan amount from £500,000 to £1 million on single or multiple properties.
Earlier this month, Masthaven introduced AVMs for the first time on first charge residential purchases, buy-to-let remortgages and buy-to-let purchases.
