Commenting, Stephen Smith, Legal & General’s director of housing, said: “We asked advisers in our mortgage network what they thought business would be like over the next three months and 54% said it would be better than the previous quarter. This is great news! Only the most pessimistic of commentators can now ignore all the promising signs coming out of the mortgage market on house prices, new lending and consumer confidence. We genuinely seemed to have turned a corner now and I fully expect the worst to be behind us.
“Our unique position in the housing market gives us a fascinating insight into what is going on at the coal face. Advisers are hugely optimistic about the protection market too and 60% of them are telling us that they think protection sales will improve over the next three months. Protection could well receive a huge boost if more advisers get involved as a result of the Retail Distribution Review.
“Looking at mortgage business, over the past year, advisers had been telling us that remortgage sales have been dropping off. However, the latest report suggests a slight reversal in that trend, albeit very minor. On average, mortgage advisers predict that remortgages will be 34% of their total mortgage business next quarter, up from 32%. The average for house purchase business for the same period is forecast to be 49%, almost exactly the same as last quarter.
“We believe that mortgage volumes in general are set to grow this year, as will house prices, housing transactions, the volume of mortgage products available – the list goes on. There is pent-up demand for property and affordability is looking pretty good. 2010 could shape up to be a relatively good year!”
