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Brokers - what are your expectations around mortgage withdrawals

Journalist: John Fitzsimons, Freelance

ended 30. May 2023

Morning brokers

At the end of last week we saw a whole swathe of lenders pulling their products or hiking rates, off the back of the inflation figures.

I'd love to get your thoughts on how you see this playing out. 

Is it the mini-Budget all over again? 

Are there any lenders that don't seem to need to reprice so dramatically, or who you can trust to at least give you some proper notice?

What has your workload been like since the rate increases and withdrawals kicked off?

9 responses from the Newspage community

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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
The majority of mortgage lenders have either increased rates, or announced rate increases, over the last week, so I don't expect to see too many more changes over the next few days - unless more data is released that makes the gloom a bit darker. They may sit tight until the Bank of England make their next annoucement of Base Rate, but typically the Swap rates will have already factored in the markets expectations.

Lenders most exposed to the fluctuations in the Swaps market, and quick to pull rates without notice tend to be the specialist lenders, those who concentrate on complex Buy to Let lending and credit impaired clients, whereas the High street lenders can take a bit of time to make a decision, albiet without a lot of notice. The policy of a few, such as Coventry BS and Platform, to give brokers up to 48 hours notice does make it easier to stomach from a processing persepctive.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
Following the inflation numbers that came out last Wednesday, most of the big lenders have bumped up their mortgage rates in response. I hope this should mean fewer unexpected changes until the Bank of England has its next meeting unless something else big comes out of the blue. The buy-to-let market, which looked like it was on the up, has hit a bit of a roadblock as a result and we're back to where we were after the mini-budget. This has caught a lot of clients off guard, and I've been chatting to some who are thinking of putting their property hunt on hold for a bit over the weekend. I've also noticed that people who were pretty relaxed about remortgaging are starting to feel the heat and are trying to lock in their rates ASAP. So, it looks like we're in for a busy couple of weeks.
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Andrew Montlake
Managing Director at Coreco
Mortgage mayhem continues on the back of the recent inflation figures that showed inflation is more stubborn than predicted and reflecting the Bank of England coming to the party too late yet again.
Whilst this is nowhere near as bad as the mini-budget debacle, it is nonetheless a perfect storm where frenzied inflation headlines mix with a panicking Bank of England who will no doubt go too far to try to make failing policy work, when we need a period of calm.
Lenders are now pulling rates as SWAP rates increase, but given the nature of these rises, I would hope that they can approach this more carefully and with more warning than late last year when they did not have a choice but to react quickly.
The mortgage market needs some cool heads who think about the customer first and foremost.
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Imran Hussain
Director at Harmony Financial Services
It's like being in a time machine but only going back to last September not some joyous point in history, It's the one thing no one wants's, but it's happening all over again short notices from lenders a switch kick in the backside to advisors and clients if we dither as rates are changing and going up quicker than before as lenders react to changes in market and SWOP rates.
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Paul Neal
Mortgages & Equity Release Advisor at First Choice Financial Services
We hope you enjoyed the bank holiday, I bet many brokers didn't.
Getting a good deal for our clients is hard enough, now getting hours' notice that a mortgage deal for a client will disappear and be replaced with something 0.5% higher has meant us brokers have been rushing over the weekend to get applications in to try and secure our clients the best deals
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Adam Smith
Founder at Alfa Mortgages
Talk about reactive, it's like we're back in the 1990s with Hans Van Dan Elzen, or as we all fondly remember him, Yo-hans, keeping a close eye on those interest rates. It's a YoYo situation, my friend, with lenders being more indecisive than a dog trying to figure out a winning poker hand. We're witnessing a wild ride of ups and downs, on and offs, dropping 40 basis points one moment and shooting up by 20 the next.

Here's the deal: we've got these folks in high-powered positions who seem to have missed the memo on decision-making. They lack the knack to not only make sound choices but also effectively communicate them to the wider market. It's like they're playing a game of "guess what I'm thinking" while we're left scratching our heads, wondering where they stand.

And let me tell you, trust is at an all-time low right now. How can we trust any lenders when they can't even trust themselves? It's like watching a game of double-cross, where no one knows who's got the winning hand.
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Clive Read
Owner at Goldmanread
Given inflation remains stubbornly high lenders have been re-pricing their rates, especially 2 year fixed rates upwards. The larger, more well established lenders such as Barclays, Natwest and Lloyds have been more supportive of the market. Maintaining lower rate rises and giving brokers greater notice periods of rate rises. Smaller or intermediary-only lenders like Accord have tended to withdraw and re-price rates more dramatically. This perhaps reflects that they have been offering very competitive rates and terms over the past few months in some cases often beating their larger rivals.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
We have to work with what we have available at the time. Quoting one rate and then having to apply with a different one is frustrating and makes more work for us all, but its part of the job. We cant moan, it wont change anything, but if we accept it and move along, all we can do is our best for the client. They will appreciate anything over and above you can do, but like most people, they will be slightly put out, but happy you can help. All us brokers ask for is a little bit of stability to cut down on our workload, so hopefully this is only a temp blip due to the US issues.
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Graham Cox
Director at Bridging Hub
The response to last week's inflation figures shows the markets are losing confidence in the Bank of England to control prices. The outcome has been surging swap rates and lenders replacing their mortgage products with noticeably more expensive ones.

I believe it will soon become self-evident we're heading into a protracted house price crash. The Land Registry has reported 5 consecutive months of falls, and their figures, for completed transactions, lag a few months behind when the deals actually completed. There's a long way to go yet.