The Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) subsidiary, which carried out all N&P’s intermediary business, conducted a poll of brokers’ thoughts on the economy and other matters to see how brokers are coping one year on from the start of the credit crunch.
The results found that:
• 70% of brokers remain reliant on mainstream mortgages for their income.
• 40% of brokers think property values will fall between 5% and 10% within 18 months, although a further 30% believe the fall will be greater than this.
• 52.5% of brokers surveyed considered the credit crunch will be with us for up to 24 months or more.
• 33% of brokers stated they plan to sell more protection insurance with a further 35.3% diversifying into other areas such as investment advice, pension planning, debt management and will writing.
Stewart Hunter (head of introduced mortgages at Astra) said: “Our survey indicates that brokers don’t believe that the credit crunch will be over quickly and they are organising their business accordingly. Brokers’ beliefs regarding house prices are in line with other industry commentators and diversification is a good idea if we are to see a prolonged period of contraction of the mortgage market. It’s really no surprise that instant decisions are overwhelmingly a hit with brokers.”
