Story for The Sunday Times: Mini-Budget recollections

In the wake of the mini Budget and the subsequent market fluctuations, brokers faced a very dynamic landscape. Rates were increasing by the hour - even lenders couldn't keep up and deals were frequently being pulled out from underneath us. It placed undue pressure on clients who should never be forced into making potentially life-changing decisions quickly, but this landscape was very complex and suitable advice was often obsolete by the next day. Clients who were able to make a quick decision benefitted sometimes; we had one case where a client secured a rate within the 3%s on a Buy to Let before the real fallout came - but that advice process was under 7 hours from beginning to end as during the process the rate was scheduled to be pulled by 8pm that day - increasing the same product to over 6% overnight. That is not a sustainable way of working, or fair to typical customers who should never be put under this sort of pressure.

The "went a bit too far" mini-Budget of 2022 will live in our memory for decades. This period of time led to lenders panicking to remove rates overnight and replace them as slowly as possible or indeed walk away from lending for a while, to evaluate market sentiment. Clients were wrongly involved in this panic when they should have been insulated from such by level-headed heads of UK lenders - sadly it demonstrated that all the long-toothed experts of banks and building societies appear to have retired early during the lockdowns. Grabbing rates at all hours of the day for clients became the norm for advice firms - the kind of virtual alternative of the aid trucks arriving in famine-hit countries. Let's hope the current period of fixed rate declines and stability continues.

The mini-budget meant we had to refocus our way of working. Even with the rate increases before this, it had very much been the same old market as the preceding 6 or 7 years.

Variable rates, such as trackers, suddenly came back into play with clients now having to decide on their view of where rates were heading.

Working with clients who were purchasing homes, we were able to reassure them that we would keep an eye on the market on their behalf, post-application. This meant they were able to apply for a mortgage at the prevailing rates on offer, but, should things improve, we would look to switch them to a better deal if it became available.

By taking this approach, we saved a couple £400 per month by simply keeping abreast of the market and reviewing their options. As a period of my career, it feels a bit like a bad dream; however not in the same league as circa 2010.

Looking back, it definitely feels like a turning point in the market.

I would say without a doubt the aftermath of the 'Mini-Budget' was the most stressful period of my career, and I am a survivor of the Credit Crunch!
In part, as I was a business owner this time, but this also came hot off the heels of the pandemic and just when a glimmer of light was shining down the tunnel for us, we realized it was a train being driven at top speed by Liz Truss!
I didn't have a day off for 3 weeks following the mini-budget as it was impossible to manage the amount of clients who were desperate to fix for 5 years (including many willing to pay exit penalties in their current deal to achieve that) and the constant rate and criteria changes from lenders. It was like playing Whack-A-Mole on a daily basis. We are still dealing with some clients now who waited (against our advice) to act if they could, as they felt rates would come down, but are still waiting... and could be waiting a long time indeed for mortgage rates to get back to starting with a 3 again.

The mini-budget sent the mortgage market into absolute turmoil with lenders removing whole product ranges with little or no notice. Rates skyrocketed and sent clients into sheer panic.

We are still feeling the effects with increased stress-testing for landlord borrowers still in place, forcing them to increase rents to achieve the required loan amounts.

The mini-budget in 2022 was a time that most mortgage brokers will never forget. Having rates pulled with little to no notice and having to report such news to our clients was an uncomfortable time for all.

Fast forward twelve months and the property market is in a completely different position. The UK housing market has continued to deflate and rates have continued to rise. This is hurting property prices but over the past four to five weeks we have seen the majority of lenders making small but positive tweaks to their mortgage products. This is having a positive impact on buyers' appetite and here at the Manchester Mortgage Centre, we have started to see an increase in first time buyer leads coming forward.

The Kamikwaze budget of 2022 rattled the markets beyond belief. Without question it spooked the masses and I've personally never experienced such panic. Even in 2008 it didn't seem so bad, but with media access so vast nowadays due to phone technology etc., our client contact went through the roof. I always remember speaking to a client for the very first time on Tues 27th Sept. Within 6 minutes of getting off the phone with him, the lender we had lined up pulled their product range and the following day they were significantly more expensive. That was a sign of things to come from pretty much every lender, I think I counted 26 changing deals on the same day at one point! Our message to all clients was DO NOT PANIC as we felt the changes were more of a short-term reaction than anything else, and thankfully this was proved correct as rates began to recover a matter of weeks later.

Embarrassingly I was featured in The Times with my then girlfriend Monika talking about overpayments and working on the basis that interest rates would go higher at some point so it was a good idea for clients to pay what they would be paying if rates were more akin to historic norms.

Little did I know that rates would shoot through the roof over the next month triggering one of the most stressful few weeks I've known as a broker.

It's been a challenging period with some really tough conversations albeit made a bit easier by having had a policy of discussing overpayments 'as it wouldn't be this good forever' in the past.

However, life goes on and we've helped so many clients this year to generally make a really tough situation not as bad as they may have feared. Plus my then girlfriend is now my fiance and we are off to Gretna Green next Friday to tie the knot.

What a year.

What a rollercoaster of a year, it seems to have started 12 months ago with the autumn mini-budget.
Speak to any adviser they will all tell you what a turbulent year it has been, with lenders changing criteria daily without notice, and changing rates daily without notice.
I remember between October 22 and the end of January 23 changing a particular client's mortgage 13 times to ensure they were always on the best rate available. They reduced from 6.49% to 4.44% in that time.
Many clients who were coming to a fixed rate end date where they had taken 2 years wish they had taken the longer 5-year fixed rates.
I would have a meeting with a client on a Monday, and within 24 hours the rates had been pulled and increased in some cases by a full 1%, horrible times.
Lenders were limiting access to their websites, having advisers waiting in a queue for hours on end to book a rate for a client, then pulling the plug, my record waiting was 2 hours 27 minutes, scared of the internet failing.

How swiftly time passes! Nowadays, there's a much greater sense of calm among clients as they've come to grasp the true nature of interest rates and inflation. To be frank, the past decade represented an economic anomaly, and clients have now come to embrace that reality.