Smart Money People has found that brokers consider complex buy-to-let lenders to be the most flexible with mortgage applications compared to any other mortgage sector.
Complex buy-to-let applications include commercial buy-to-let, portfolio landlords and limited company applications.
Complex buy-to-let lenders were rated 96% for their flexibility by brokers. Mainstream buy-to-let lenders were rated 87% for flexibility. Overall, lenders across all categories scored a rating of 79% for flexibility.
When asked what they liked about the lender they had placed a complex buy-to-let application with, one broker said: “Flexibility and the underwriters look for a way to write the deal and work with you to get the best solutions for the clients.”
Comparing the two types of buy-to-let lending, brokers also rated the underwriting from complex buy-to-let lenders as higher than mainstream buy-to-let lenders, with a rating of 50% compared to 32%. The overall average across all lenders was 51%.
Smart Money People also found there is a marked difference between broker satisfaction with speed for the two types of buy-to-let lender. Complex buy-to-let lenders were rated just 29% for their speed and mainstream buy-to-let lenders were rated 55% for speed. In turn this shows a difference in how easy a broker thinks these lenders are to place an application with. Complex buy-to-let lenders were rated 67% compared to 80% for mainstream buy-to-let lender applications for ease by brokers.
When leaving feedback for a complex buy-to-let application with a lender, one broker said: “Their service delivery has a lot of scope to improvement. Too much time in processing leaves clients on the edge.”
Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People, said: “It’s clear that brokers realise and appreciate the complex nature of non-mainstream buy-to-let cases and how lenders approach them, especially when it comes to how flexible a lender is willing to be for these cases. However a rating of 29% for speed compared to the overall lender average of 58% shows that complex buy-to-let lenders still have room for improvement in their backend processes.”
The Mortgage Lender Benchmark covers feedback from 597 brokers on 44 lenders across banks, building societies, specialist lenders and lifetime providers, as well as their thoughts on the mortgage market in general.
Along with asking brokers to rate lenders on different aspects of their proposition, Smart Money People analyses the comments that brokers provide when asked what they like or what could be improved for each lender. These are mapped across 20 themes to give a rich insight into how each lender is performing.