Firstly, a very Happy New Year to one and all! What a way to start……..VAT is back to 17.5%, the Stamp Duty threshold has returned to £175,000, and the fluffy white stuff is causing havoc (and great fun!). As 2010 emerges from the grey of 2009, what portends for the mortgage market as we head towards the Spring? A General Election, more regulation and greater confusion for those looking to step onto the property ladder, or change their mortgage?
The challenge we face in 2010, as a mortgage intermediary, is being able to compete on a level playing field against those organisations that conduct non-advised sales (especially the banks) or who are not independent and do not remotely offer even a representative ‘whole of market’ offering. Whatever your scenario, you need and deserve to be given advice for all products available in the market, not just a chosen few!
The other challenge facing us all is the national debt! The myriad of press and TV coverage will have ensured that we are all fully aware that, whoever wins power in the forthcoming elections, there will be financial pain meted out to the community to engender recovery of this issue which has spiralled massively out of control.
Good news this week in that one of the larger property websites has allegedly reported that, on Monday alone, they received more hits than in the whole of January 2009. Positive news and greatly received so early in the year!
We too, had a positive end to 2009 with more new applicants than for many months. If this is a sign of returning confidence then that is good news all round in the home mortgage sector. Confidence is contagious and is a good thing. Let's start the year that way and, who knows where it might lead us?
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