April advisor searches impacted by criteria changes

May 10, 2023 by Heidi

Mortgage Advisors

The available data for last month shows that advisors conducted a lot of searches on topics related to changing mortgage criteria, as lenders continued to alter their criteria on a frequent basis.

This information from Knowledge Bank suggests that keeping on top of criteria shifts was preoccupying mortgage advisors throughout April, while they attempted to find suitable loans for their clients. When it comes to residential mortgages, lenders that are prepared to accept payments that are missed or delayed was the topic most searched for during the month.

The third most searched residential subject was interest-only mortgage loans. That marked its return to the five most searched topics after dropping out of them during March. The two together indicate that the cost of living crisis is still biting many people in the UK.

In terms of self-build mortgages, non-standard construction loans were among the main product searches carried out by mortgage advisors throughout April. They also did lot of looking for lenders that offer commercial property bridging loans last month.

Nicola Firth, the CEO of Knowledge Bank told Financial Reporter that:

“This relentless change demonstrates once again that brokers cannot sit on their laurels and that if it’s not lenders changing criteria daily then it’s their clients’ profiles that are changing.”

She added that there were now more borrowers with complicated financial situations.

Many advisors who have CeMAP training under their belts have already identified the specialist market as a key area that will enable them to find lenders with more suitable criteria.