Advisers are slightly less confident about their own business following the general election, a study found.
The latest Mortgage Market Tracker report from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) found that the share of advisers who felt ‘very confident’ about their own business dropped from 54% in Q2 to 44% in Q3, while the number of respondents who felt ‘fairly confident’ about their business increased from 43% to 51%.
The proportion of advisers who were ‘not very confident’ rose marginally from a small share of 2% to 3%.
Despite the fall in confidence regarding their own businesses, the optimism advisers had about the mortgage market as a whole stayed at its long-run norm and went back to levels seen in Q2 2022. It fell from 42% in July to 33% in August, just after the election, then returned to 44% by September.
IMLA said broker confidence was “high in a historic[al] context” and had been broadly maintained since the election.
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Drop in business volumes
IMLA’s survey also recorded a reduction in broker workloads, as the average number of mortgage cases placed by intermediaries fell from 96 in Q2 to 92 in Q3.
Mortgage brokers processed an average of 96 cases, six lower than the previous quarter, while the business conducted by independent financial advisers (IFAs) was stable at 68.
There was a small fall in the share of buy-to-let (BTL) cases handled in Q3, which declined from around a quarter to 22%. Residential cases accounted for 68% of business in Q3, while specialist cases stayed stable at one in 10 cases.
The average number of decisions in principle (DIPs) processed in Q3 returned to long-run averages of 27, down from a high of 33 in Q2.
Conversions from DIP to completion were at 39%, falling a 6% decline in Q2.
Kate Davies (pictured), executive director of IMLA, said: “July’s general election caused a very slight wobble in advisers’ confidence in their own business, but overall the results for Q3 2024 continue to reflect sustained positive sentiment about a mortgage market recovering well from the fiscal shock of Q3 2022.
“Business volumes remain healthy, and the fact that there has only been a slight drop-off in the proportion of buy-to-let business, despite fears about a Labour government potentially adopting an anti-landlord stance, is testament to the continued resilience of this key sector.”
She added: “The economy continues to be characterised by uncertainty, creating a difficult working environment for advisers, who are having to dig deep and put in long hours to secure the most appropriate solutions for their customers.
“October’s Budget and the US election result may well add to the economic uncertainty, and it will be interesting to see how these events impact our markets and adviser confidence in Q4.”
