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Jon Cooper, head of mortgages at Aldermore.
The 2020s have yet to offer any respite to the mortgage market. From the pandemic to the Stamp Duty holiday buying boom, it’s been an intense few years. Not to mention the impact of the war in Ukraine on global macroeconomics or Kwarteng’s infamous mini budget of September 2022. And who could forget the 14 consecutive Base Rate rises?
We’ve had a decade’s worth of drama in three years, but I’m optimistic that this year is going to give us a break from the mortgage storm and a chance to catch our breath in a more benign economic environment.
In 2023 lenders, brokers and borrowers became hypervigilant, nervously awaiting the next inflation report, hike in rates or product withdrawal.
We know it’s been a challenge for you and your clients, with constantly changing products, shifting criteria and panicked borrowers keeping you extremely busy, alongside falling lending volumes – down 28% over the year, according to UK Finance.
Affordability has been stretched, buyers have been thin on the ground, and sellers are concerned about their property’s value. On the bright side, things are changing. The back end of the year has seen inflation, mortgage rates and asking prices all fall. Fingers crossed this will boost buyer confidence.
Aldermore worked tirelessly to support brokers last year by improving our overall proposition – from processes and productively to product development.
Our product team has managed around 60 product changes last year in reaction to Base Rate hikes and turbulent swap rates. Thankfully these changes have been largely downward in the last two months.
Our overriding aim has been to remain competitive while giving brokers as much notice of withdrawals as possible. We’ve also introduced limited edition products to better manage the wider volatility.
We know smoother, faster processing and certainty of offer are important to you, and we continually work to improve our systems. We’ve introduced remote valuations this year on more applications, for example, significantly speeding up processing. Plus, we’ve rolled out two-touch underwriting, resulting in a much quicker response time for less complex cases and opened our solicitor panel to offer greater choice.
Our website was recently redesigned to make it easier for you to find everything you need quickly.
Our new Platinum Broker proposition launched in January 2023, has delivered on service and flexible lending criteria, recognising and rewarding the key brokers in our business. We want our Platinum brokers to really feel the difference when working with us and the feedback we’ve received has been incredibly positive.
We’re thrilled to see our hard work on service recognised by our brokers. Our most recent Net Promotor Score (NPS) was the highest ever recorded at +68 for our field-based BDM team.
We also launched our Mortgage Pledge, giving you at least one day's notice of any product withdrawal and 10 days to convert a DIP into a full application. We’ve also removed the back-and-forth for further information and expedited our app-to-offer timescales. When you submit an application, we’ll tell you exactly what documentation is needed, and you must upload it within 10 days to progress the case.
We’ve provided support and education throughout the year on a wide range of issues, including help for struggling borrowers in line with the Mortgage Charter and supporting you ahead of the introduction of the Consumer Duty.
And we’re grateful to have seen a marked increase in industry award nominations from brokers, the latest being the Mortgage Strategy Awards. We’ve been nominated in various categories including Best Specialist Lender and Best BDM team. As always, your support would be appreciated, you can vote here.
Our people make us special, and we’ve invested heavily in our team this year. We’ve made key internal promotions and hired recruits, including Nicola Goldie as head of strategic partnerships and growth, to help bolster our support for brokers and key partners.
We’ve also changed the structure of our BDM team to deliver a dedicated and streamlined support to brokers.
Happy and engaged staff means happy brokers and borrowers, which is why we put such effort into developing an open and supportive culture at Aldermore.
Fingers crossed interest rates have now peaked. We’re hoping for a calmer economic backdrop in 2024 and less volatility. Of course, the market is expected to slow further, affecting all our businesses. UK Finance has forecast a drop in gross lending of five per cent in 2024 to £215bn.
We can’t control the wider economy, but we can and will focus on what’s key to our business – our support of brokers and your clients. We’re planning some exciting product changes in the first few months of this year alongside significant investment into our technology to make it easier for you to work with us.
We’re feeling optimistic about 2024 and can’t wait to continue working with you.