And when asked how confident they were that this market would grown in the next 12 months, 29% were extremely confident, 62% relatively confident and 9% were neutral.
Managing director Ying Tan said: “It’s great to see confidence is high amongst brokers. Despite the challenging environment the broker community has faced over the last four to five years our resilience is paying off and there is a strong feeling of sustainable growth.”
Brokers were asked how easy they were finding it to place buy-to-let business taking into consideration the complexity of lenders’ criteria.
While just 5% said it was extremely easy; 48% said it was relatively easy while 23% said it was neither easy nor hard, 20% found it relatively hard and 4% said it was extremely hard.
When asked what interests borrowers the most; 50% said low rates, 45% said flat fees, 2.5% said freebies and fast turnaround times while none said borrowers were most enticed by cashback offers.
Tan added: “It’s interesting to see what investors value in a mortgage. Many may have expected more brokers to say fast turnaround fees are important to clients but perhaps this shows an understanding on the part of brokers and investors that the underwriting process now takes longer.
“Overall this survey shows bricks and mortar is still the preferred investment vehicle and with funding becoming more readily available and lenders loosening criteria that looks unlikely to change any time soon.”
