During a mortgage market panel debate held today at the Financial Services Expo Alan Cleary, managing director of Precise Mortgages, said he believed the market would surpass £200bn of gross lending but warned against any anticipation the mortgage market would show continued stellar growth over the next 12-15 months.
Cleary said: “If you believe politicians, who sometimes like to use the housing market as a political football, you could easily believe that £300bn was do-able however I’ve seen the FCA’s expectation for this market and it is flat. They are not going to let this market do anything ‘topsy’.”
Gary Salter of Nationwide Building Society, agreed that £200bn was achievable in 2014 however he also believed the mortgage market had “calmed down slightly” in recent months whilst still suggesting the market would grow by 10-15% next year.
David Whittaker of buy-to-let specialist brokers, Mortgages for Business, agreed that 2015 was “not looking as promising” as when 2014 began. He said buy-to-let gross lending levels would hit £25/26bn in 2014 however the “momentum and the heat is coming out of the market”.
