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Are you shifting away from vanilla?

ended 18. May 2026

Brokers: do you see a future in vanilla mortgages or do you expect lenders and tech platforms to automate you out of this area of the mortgage market in the years ahead (any examples, feel free to mention)? If you do think the future for vanilla is bleak, are you restructuring your business, for example, by focusing on specialist mortgages or training as an IFA? Any thoughts, ASAP please.

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Martin Rayner
Financial Adviser at Compton Financial Services
There is a huge difference between getting a mortgage and getting the right mortgage. A lender or AI platform may find a deal, but that does not mean it is the best option across the market or the right fit long term.

If an AI tool gets it wrong, or a lender fails to mention a cheaper rate elsewhere, the client could be locked into the wrong mortgage for years. The key question is protection and accountability. Who is responsible if the advice was not the best outcome available?

Most brokers cost little, if anything, directly to the client, yet can save borrowers thousands by comparing the market and reviewing rates. On a £300,000 mortgage, even a small rate difference can have a major impact.

Technology will improve mortgage processing, but advice, accountability and client protection still matter when borrowing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
Advisers need to get comfy with the complex. We provide the advise that AI and quick click systems don’t. It does feel like Advisers are being cut out. Lenders have streamlined processes and made it so easy for borrowers to apply for mortgages without any advise or even a conversation. The FCA need to look at this. Whilst convenient, are they getting the best deal?.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
It's clear that the mortgage market will see some quite significant changes in the coming years, as the delivery of advice and mortgages from those high-street lenders that are typically 'Vanilla', or more straightforward cases, could be without the need for brokers. I am definitely looking to concentrate more marketing effort on those specialist needs, but with nearly 20 years of a heavy Vanilla influence on my business, that change is difficult to execute. There are plenty of larger broker firms in the adverse space, for example, so becoming a voice in that market is difficult to engineer, but perhaps there lies an opportunity as well.
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Jamie Alexander
Mortgage Director at Alexander Southwell Mortgages
Our business is heavily vanilla, and honestly, people have been predicting its death for years. We're a small brokerage, compared to the big vanilla operations around the country, we probably shouldn't exist on paper. But we do, because people still use us. Clients still pick up the phone and want to talk to someone they trust. And there's a bigger question here around protection and accountability, if something goes wrong, who's responsible?

Most brokers cost the client little or nothing, yet can save them thousands by comparing the market properly. I genuinely believe people will always buy from people. Technology will keep pushing into this space, no question, but it hasn't replaced that yet.