SMART tracks the confidence and general sentiment of intermediaries operating in the specialist buy-to-let, self-certification and sub-prime mortgage markets.
The findings from BM Solutions’ SMART index are:
• Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, mainstream mortgages are down from 55% to 51% of mortgages taken out; self-certification mortgages have risen from 22% to 25%; and buy-to-let and sub-prime cases have held steady at 12% and 10% respectively.
• During the current quarter (April to June 2003), advisers expect ‘Other’ types of mortgages (mainly equity release and commercial mortgages) to show the greatest increase in volumes, rising by an average of 8.2%.
• During the last three months the average mainstream mortgage size was £124,100. Next came self-certification mortgages with an average loan of £117,100 (decline of 4.3% from the last quarter) and mortgages in the ‘Other types’ category with an average loan of £112,700.
• Almost six out of ten respondents (59%) said that they did actively target their client base for remortgages. Nevertheless, a large minority of nearly four out of ten (38%) said that they did not.
