Mortgage processing times

There may have been a general improvement, but if you have a case that goes to manual underwriting then I would say the timescales are worse. Typically the questions asked are more rudimentary than ever, thus taking up additional processing time for us as well as the lender. To balance there we are seeing more automated underwriting, including Income validation with HMRC and online valuation models, so for the right client and situation we can have an offer in an hour, or it will take weeks with human intervention.

Yes, there has definitely been improvement, and it's great to see high street lenders cutting down their processing times from 14 to 10 days. However, there's still a lot of room for innovation. With technology advancing so rapidly, things like keying a lot of information manually that can be checked using online integrated systems should already be a thing of the past. Some lenders are leading the way by utilising open banking for income verification, desktop valuations, and offering mortgages in as little as 4 days. This should be the standard across the board. Now if only conveyancers could take the hint—because that side of things seems to be getting slower every year!