2009-2010
The 20th ever Your Mortgage Awards celebrate those lenders and associated product providers that have excelled in their field over the last 12 months
There have been many ups and down in the UK mortgage market since the Your Mortgage Awards were launched 20 years ago, but perhaps the most dramatic changes have been witnessed in the last two years.
Indeed, the last year has been possibly the most difficult ever for the UK mortgage industry, as lenders have done their best to adjust to cope with a dramatically different landscape. The country's largest lenders have been part-nationalised, and have been trying to square the circle of maximizing profits to build up capital and ultimately pay back the tax payer who bailed them out, while concurrently being pressured by the Government to lend more.
All lenders have struggled to access adequate funds to lend out, as the securitization markets have largely remained shut, and the regulator has insisted that they hold on to large amounts of capital as a type of insurance. As a result, there has been something of a mortgage drought, and those lenders still operating have kept a close eye on criteria and borrowers' credit records.
Of course, the resulting mortgage drought has been bad news for borrowers, although most are still getting by on reasonably competitive rates. But all of these changes and challenges have also been very hard on mortgage lenders and their staff, whose morale has surely been at an all time low.
So it is to the great credit of those lenders still in business in the UK that they keep on keeping on, not just ticking over but actively looking to lend in those areas they are able. Inevitably, repossessions and arrears have risen this year, albeit far more slowly than predicted. And that is a direct result of lenders treating their existing borrowers sympathetically, and, for example, allowing some whose property prices have fallen to remortgage up to 120% of their homes' current value, for example.
Happily, towards the latter end of the year, a number of lenders started to ease their criteria and offer more products in higher loan-to value bands, and we have already seen an increase in the proportion of first-time buyers coming to the market as a result.
The Your Mortgage Awards, in this their 20th year, have perhaps been harder-won than ever. And each and every winner deserves hearty congratulations for their efforts.
Paula John
Editor
