Brokers have been searching for lenders who, with residential cases, will only leave a ‘soft footprint at the decision in principle stage’.
More brokers are searching for criteria to place clients with past credit problems, Knowledge Bank has found.
Its October Activity Tracker showed within residential searches last month, brokers have, for the first time, been searching for lenders who will only leave a ‘soft footprint at the decision in principle stage’.
‘Defaults registered in the past three years’ and ‘self-employed, one years’ accounts’ also featured among the top five within residential searches.
Nicola Firth (pictured), chief executive of Knowledge Bank, said: “It’s been a month of change in criteria searching and we have seen movement in several of the lending categories over the past month.
“This is an indication of just how difficult a job mortgage brokers have in satisfying the ever-changing needs of their clients.
“The mortgage sector continues to show high levels of fluidity and these results show that different product types rise and fall in popularity from month to month.
“Brokers occupy an absolutely crucial space in the mortgage market as they have to balance the desires of borrowers with almost daily changes to lending criteria.
“As a result, to get the best deal for clients – and ensure that they are meeting regulatory requirements – it’s vital that brokers keep pace with movements in the market and ensure they’re using a tool with up to date product knowledge.”
Paul Adams, sales director at Pepper Money, added: “It’s little surprise that more brokers are searching for mortgages for clients with adverse credit.
“With growing levels of unsecured debt and increasing numbers of missed payments, CCJs and defaults, more people are finding that they have a record of adverse credit on their credit file.
“In fact,our research hasfound that 7.86 million people have experienced credit problems in thepast three years and of these, 16% are thinking about buying a property in the next 12 months.
“Thismeans 1.26 million people may need the support of a broker.”
Within the buy-to-let sector brokers have been looking for lenders who would consider ‘first-time landlords’, making this the most popular search performed during the entire month.
This is the first time this has happened since July.
Meanwhile, there was more change in the bridging sector with searches for regulated bridging losing the top spot it had held for the past two months to searches for the minimum loan amount.
Additionally, in the commercial sector searches for mixed use properties, entered the top five searches for the first time.
