Lenders are back, first‑time buyers are back – and brokers who know their stuff are busier than ever
The residential market may be noisy, but broker Rikesh Tailor says the fundamentals are improving – particularly for first-time buyers.
Tailor, a broker at Mortgage Knight based in Watford, said he was seeing “a few more first-time buyers in the market,” helped by more generous affordability from mainstream lenders and a steady flow of new products.
He pointed to the growing number of lenders willing to stretch income multiples for the right cases. “You have got lenders doing up to five and a half times income, which was helping as well,” he said, adding that even six-times-income options were now emerging.
Low-deposit products were also playing a part. Tailor noted that Santander had launched a 2% deposit mortgage and referenced Skipton’s Track Record mortgage, although he stressed that the latter had been “more niche” and less suited to the London market given its rent-based model.
Against that backdrop, he believed the overall lending environment is healthier than it had been. “I would say so,” he commented when asked if the market was in a better spot. “I think the lenders were there, they were keen to lend. This was why you were seeing these new products coming out.”
However, Tailor argued that the proliferation of product tweaks and criteria nuances only increased the value of competent advice. “Where it made our job more important now than ever was to make sure we had that lender knowledge,” he said. Brokers needed to understand what each lender was trying to achieve with new offerings to ensure that applications and expectations aligned on both sides.
“The market was very busy,” he noted, and rate movements between decision in principle and application meant brokers often had to revisit their lender choices. “Between seeing a customer who maybe just wanted a decision in principle to them coming to you when they found the property, maybe looking at different lenders, the rates could have gone up, they could have gone down. So there was a lot more work to do.”
Despite the extra legwork, Tailor’s own pipeline suggests momentum is building. “I was busier this year than I was last year already, so that was how I judged it,” he said. “If last year I was getting one enquiry a day, and today I’m getting three enquiries a day, I see that as an improvement.”
He said that increase in enquiries would translate into completed business over the coming months, thanks to the natural lag between initial conversations and completions. “That enquiry turning to income is by the bar,” he explained. “You deal with the enquiry; it is going to generate something in three months, in six months, so that momentum was good.”
For brokers, Tailor’s message is clear: lenders are open for business, first‑time buyers are returning, and those with strong product and criteria knowledge are well placed to turn that interest into completions.
