During a debate at Manchester Mortgage Business Expo lenders including Precise Mortgages said consumers were still reticent about getting a mortgage and there is more funding available than lending being done.
But a broker delegate accused the lender panel of “bellyaching” and said there was demand from consumers to borrow. He challenged lenders saying that if they have money to lend, why persist in restrictive criteria and expensive pricing that prevented borrowers from getting a mortgage?
David Finlay, intermediary channel director at Barclays, said that his lender was lending as much as they wanted to but there were still capital constraints and regulatory issues that prevented lenders moving further up the risk curve.
Alan Cleary, managing director off Precise Mortgages, added: “We’d all like to move up the risk curve and of course if we put out a product tomorrow at 95% we could lend all day long but no investor is going to back that level of risk in new lending. There is a job to be done to raise consumer awareness among good quality customers who can get mortgages but who think they will be rejected.”
Finlay agreed that brokers had an opportunity to help educate that segment of borrowers.
Cleary said he had commissioned research of 2,100 consumers which showed that borrowers were sitting on their hands because they didn’t think they could get a mortgage.
