2008-2009
The Your Mortgage Awards celebrate those mortgage brokers, lenders and associated product providers that have excelled in their field over the past year
The last 12 months have been the most challenging ever experienced in the UK mortgage market. A truly shocking series of events has changed the face of UK mortgage lending and, indeed, the very fabric of the country’s financial institutions.
The run on Northern Rock and its subsequent nationalisation, the failure of Bradford & Bingley, the part nationalisation of the UK’s biggest mortgage lender HBOS and its takeover by Lloyds TSB C&G, the collapse of the sub-prime sector, withdrawal of 100% and self-certification homeloans, plummeting house prices and a global liquidity freeze have resulted in wholesale change in the way lenders lend and borrowers borrow.
Those mortgage lenders still in business have tightened their criteria considerably and are far more choosy about who they lend to. Some would say this is a welcome return to a more sane kind of market than that we have experienced in recent years. Despite large cuts to the Bank Base Rate, borrowers are, in general, having to pay higher rates for their mortgages – not a desirable state of affairs for homeowners, but arguably a sensible measure from the lenders’ point of view.
As recession sets in, the level of repossessions is inexorably rising, but lenders are committed to keeping people in their homes for as long as possible and only taking back properties as a last resort. All in all, the picture is fairly bleak. But the UK mortgage market has long been characterised by a number of impressive virtues: it is robust, it is resilient, and it is the most innovative mortgage market in the world.
The Your Mortgage Awards, now in their 19th year, exist to acknowledge and reward the very best mortgage lenders in the country. During hard times such as those we are currently experiencing, winning an award is a taller order than ever. And so this year’s winners deserve all the more acclaim for continuing to impress the judges with their products and service in an extremely challenging environment.
Barney McCarthy
Editor
