The data has been collected from all of the searches that brokers performed on Knowledge Bank for their clients during January.
The first criteria index of 2020 has shown that the wider mortgage sector looks set to be a market of contrasts according to Knowledge Bank.
The data has been collected from all of the searches that brokers performed for their clients during the month of January in an attempt to place mortgages and loans.
The equity release market saw the top five most popular searches being new which isthe first time that this has happened in any category for over a year.
The criteria that was searched on above all else in the equity release sector was early repayment charges followed closely by brokers searching for lenders who would accept clients with adverse credit.
Making up the rest of the top five most popular searches were for lenders who would accept an application from a married couple in a single name, applications from those in sheltered accommodation and the lenders who would offer the maximum loan amount.
The self-build sector saw four of the top five most searched for categories by brokers as new searches.
The search for the maximum LTV retained the top spot.
In addition, changing clients’ circumstances also had brokers using the system to find the maximum loan to cost available and lenders who would lend to self-employed expats and those with retained company profits.
Searches were more consistent in the residential market with the most searched for criteria once again being the maximum age lenders will allow at the end of the mortgage term.
Criteria searches in the secured loan and bridging markets remained relatively consistent from December 2019 with brokers using the criteria search system to find the maximum loan amount possible for their clients.
Of particular interest in the buy-to-let category was the search for lenders that will lend to expatriates.
Matthew Corker, lender relationship manager at Knowledge Bank, said:“While some sectors witnessed a radical shake up of client needs some are notably more consistent and predictable.
"What this does highlight is how difficult it continues to be for brokers to balance the changing needs of their clients with lenders ever-changing criteria.
"Effectively brokers are the pivot in a seesaw, where clients’ needs go up and down at one end and lender’s criteria does the same at the other.
"Brokers simply add massive value by balancing out the needs of the client with lending criteria but in order to do this they need to know what has changed and when.
"2020 is going to be another year of uncertainly and change so brokers need to arm themselves with the tools to make placing mortgage cases as painless and practical as possible.”
