While public demand for advice on other financial services remained steady, with ethical and overseas investments continuing to show growth, the appetite for mortgage product advice took a sharp nosedive.
David Elms, chief executive of Unbiased.co.uk, believed that this was further evidence of the impact the credit crunch was having on the mortgage market.
He explained: “Our latest report shows how adaptable the independent financial advice sector is to a changing economic climate.
"Although mortgage applications are down and demand for advice on mortgages is also dropping, demand for good independent financial advice on offshore and ethical investment products is rising and the advice sector is meeting that demand.
"Consumer needs are constantly changing and whole of market IFAs are the best-positioned of all advice types to serve these needs.”
Unbiased.co.uk also revealed it had over half a million requests from consumers for independent advisers in 2007.
Daniel Clayden, director at Clayden Associates, commented: “I don’t do a huge amount of mortgage business but I only did one in the last quarter, so I would reiterate that completely.
"There’s probably two reasons for this; pessimism caused by the credit crunch and the seasonal factor that not many people are interested in moving at the end of the year.
" However, the fact that I work in other areas of financial services means if one area of the market is affected, I’ve still got other things to keep my business levels fluid.”
