Executive Summary

The UK mortgage market continues to be extremely competitive. It is providing consumers with cheaper mortgages, increased flexibility and product range, and more choice in how to buy a mortgage.

The market is also broadening, with the sub-prime categories now able to choose from a range of large providers for a mortgage thanks to a wave of new niche market entrants and the entry of the traditional lenders into this part of the market.

One of the major factors affecting the market in the near future will be government regulation: this is to be put in place following the numerous scandals over endowment mortgages and the subsequent loss of public and government confidence in the mortgage market to regulate itself. It is still unclear exactly what the regulations will look like, but it is likely to increase costs and push some players out of the market and lead to further consolidation.

Mortgage providers still continue to offer 'direct' mortgages to consumers through multiple channels. It is now common for most mortgage providers to offer numerous channels through which consumers can buy mortgages. The range of mortgage products on offer has increased rapidly, leading to wider choice for the consumer.

Internet sales of mortgages continue to grow fast, although the overall amount of business sold through these channels and their popularity remains low. Telephone sales have also experienced high growth rates since 1999 and, although more popular than Internet sales, continue to be less popular than the branch. Most traditional lenders have responded to these trends by halting or scaling back their branch closures while new market entrants have attempted to create a physical presence by partnering up with existing retail outlets in the high street and with supermarkets to create mini branches.

Direct sellers of mortgages are continuing to outsource many aspects of their business to companies that provide services, such as packaging, to a number of different mortgage providers. This enables sellers to concentrate on selling to the consumer and also to reduce their costs - again making the industry more competitive.

Key Note's exclusive survey of 948 adults, conducted by BMRB Access in July 2003, confirms a robust preference amongst consumers for face-to-face contact with the seller when purchasing a mortgage product and a continued reluctance to use the telephone or the Internet to buy a mortgage.

Despite the global economic downturn, the continued speculation over a possible fall in house prices in the UK and a levelling off in mortgage lending, it is still unclear whether the housing market is going to fall at all in the next 12 months and if so by how much.

Price:	£ 775.00 GBP ex VAT (£ 910.62 GBP inc VAT )
Publication date:	31 Oct 2003
Licence period:	365 days

Visitor
Register Now

How to Buy

It is easy to purchase access to the resources available from the library. Before purchasing you can view a summary of the document by clicking the summary link. Some documents and resources have sample chapters, extracts, tables of contents and reviews which you can view before buying. To proceed to purchase the document simply click the 'Buy' link.

After purchasing a resource you can return to it, via the Access button, as many times as you wish during the duration of the licence period

If you have purchased resources from us before and have therefore provided payment details to us, you will be taken through to a confirmation page so that you can confirm the transaction you are about to make. Click confirm and you will receive immediate access to the resource.

If you have never provided payment details to us, or your are not logged in, you will be taken to a Registration / Login page where you will be prompted to do so before you can make a purchase.

This section of our site is administered by our site managers, PracticeWEB / Sift Ltd. If you have any queries with regard to the information on this section, PracticeWEB / Sift Ltd will do its best to assist with these. To contact PracticeWEB / Sift Ltd with any such queries, please send an email to service@sift.co.uk.

Reports purchased through our website will appear on your credit card statement as follows. Ł AWEB.TZ.CRM.SIFT ICC BRISTOL GB.

If you are paying by invoice it will be sent at the end of each month for any paid for resources you have purchased within that month. Our terms of payment are 30 days from date of invoice. In order to cover the additional administration involved in processing purchase orders, there is a minimum invoice amount of Ł20 (excluding VAT) for any month in which you have made a purchase. If you purchased a report using the purchase order option you will receive an invoice from AccountingWEB Ltd.