Mortgage market needs to keep up with times

Despite higher levels of confidence about their finances as the economy recovers, almost half – some 46pc – of consumers questioned by Precise Mortgages said they thought the home loan market is in poor health. This sentiment was primarily driven by the lack of availability of mortgages.

One in five of the 2,200 homeowners, renters and buy-to-let landlords questioned said that those working in non-traditional ways – such as the self-employed and freelancers – find mortgages too difficult to secure.

Alan Cleary, managing director of Precise Mortgages, said: “The research presents an interesting conundrum – on the one hand confidence has returned and this is being rightly celebrated across the industry but there appears to be a delay in this buoyancy filtering down to the consumer.

"Ultimately, the market is there to serve them and yet many of them feel unserved by lenders and concerned that access to the market is denied to them.

"We have a significant role to play in combating the feeling that mortgages are difficult to obtain, that lenders continue to favour large deposits and are unforgiving of those with credit blemishes or alternative employment histories, perhaps freelance or self-employed.”

“There are specialist lenders in the market designed to meet this challenge but there is still more to be done across the wider industry to innovate products and ensure they respond to contemporary consumer need.

"Ensuring that all viable homeowners have access to mortgage products should be the aim of lenders across the board, both to meet homeowning aspirations and continue to grow the recovering British economy.”

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