The poll, which was taken in January of this year, reported that 32 per cent of brokers blamed the rate rises for the market slowdown while only 22 per cent blamed the advent of regulation. A quarter of respondents blamed the demise of the first-time-buyer for the slowdown.
Interestingly there was not a single source where intermediaries went to check up on the latest rates. 38 per cent went to sourcing systems, 16 per cent went direct to lender websites while 17 per cent spoke to their local BDMs.
15 per cent preferred to use lender call centres. Jeff Knight, head of marketing services at GMAC-RFC, commented: “It seems that at the end of the day a lot of brokers simply want to talk non-conforming cases through with people.”
Bob Scott, managing director of Amity Mortgages said: “Brokers are always looking at different ways to increase their revenues and non-conforming can be key, particularly now it is becoming easier to deal with the cases.
“On one hand you have online systems, which speed things up, and on the other you have more lenders supplying on-site underwriters at packagers, which helps enormously.”
The survey also revealed that 60 per cent trusted sourcing systems to provide compliant KFIs, with only 31 per cent going direct to the lender websites.
