The £6 million online service allows brokers access to decisions-in-principle (DIPs), KFIs, applications, an affordability calculator and conveyancing through the system.
Users can also navigate through the site dependant on what best suits them and includes re-population of information and the ability to save any tasks so they can be returned to at a later date.
Speaking at the launch last week Peter Beaumont, sales and marketing director at Mortgages plc, said the service would signal the start of a new era for the non-conforming lender.
He said: “Mortgages plc has spent a great deal of time and effort in making these changes and other lenders will now have to follow suit. The site is easy to use, reliable and gives peace of mind to the user.” Beaumont added the main benefit of the site was the ability to provide watertight decisions in a very short space of time.
Mortgages plc also confirmed changes to its mortgage pricing structure and its product range. It is to base its pricing on the Bank of England Base Rate (BBR), and enhance its lending criteria.
However, Beaumont expressed concerns about the state of the mortgage market and called for the government to give buyers and the industry greater help. He said: “£10 billion has been taken out of the industry through stamp tax and so on each year. Isn’t it time they gave some back, through schemes like shared home ownership?”
He went on to say small lenders would find it increasingly difficult to compete in the market, as they would be unable to match the expenditure of the larger lenders – a statement Michael Coogan, director-general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), agreed with. He argued the FSA would be scrutinising the market interactions of brokers and lenders in 2006 and said: “The lender-intermediary relationship is certainly one the FSA may look at changing.”
