UK Mortgage Industry Is Confident in the Market for 2024

According to the latest Mortgage Market Tracker report from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA), confidence has returned to the UK mortgage market as sentiment continues to improve – growing steadily month by month for the last quarter.

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76% of mortgage intermediaries are confident about the UK mortgage market in 2024

Sentiment within the UK mortgage market has been steadily increasing over the last quarter according to the latest Mortgage Market Tracker report from IMLA, and confidence has grown significantly amongst experts in the industry.

According to the report published this week, 76% of intermediaries stated they were “confident” regarding the outlook for the market in September 2023, which fell to 69% in October but rose again in December to 83%.

Of the 83% in December, 21% of those were “very confident” and the overall number of those confident in the market for the last quarter of 2023 was 74% - an incredible improvement on the previous year, when in Q4 2022 just 65% said they were confident in the future of the UK mortgage industry, notably after Kwarteng’s mini-budget which created significant economic turmoil for the country.

The confidence levels within the mortgage intermediaries’ businesses were even higher, as 92% of intermediaries described themselves as confident in the outlook for their mortgage firms in Q4 2023.

Buy to let mortgages account for 25% of mortgage intermediaries’ business in 2023

Throughout the last quarter of 2023, on average, residential lending accounted for 66% of all mortgage intermediaries’ business, with buy-to-let securing 25%, and specialist cases making up the additional 9% of cases – the proportions of which remained similar throughout the entire year.

“It is interesting to note that the level of buy-to-let business remained broadly consistent throughout 2023, despite negative headlines. Competition in the market is now lively, and lenders are confident that mortgage advisers will continue to work hard to find the most suitable mortgages for their clients from a vast array of products on offer. As a result, IMLA predicts that intermediaries will account for 89% of all mortgage business written this year.” Kate Davies, Executive Director of IMLA.
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The number of mortgage cases secured by intermediaries in Q4 2023 also increased to an average of 95 compared to just 92 in Q3 2023.

The UK mortgage market lowers interest rates to remain competitive

This comes as UK mortgage rates have begun to decline, as big lenders are beginning to bring down their rates to remain competitive against their competitors. Just last month HSBC, Barclays, Santander, and Halifax announced that they would be significantly lowering their rates, in some cases, even below 5% - an interest rate that is currently difficult to obtain.

To learn more about the current state of the UK mortgage market and how you can invest in the UK property market, get in touch with our expert team today or call directly at +44 (0) 161 791 4600.

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