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Internet generation wants face-to-face mortgage help
Despite being web-savvy, millennials prefer the old-fashioned approach when it comes to mortgage advice
The majority of millennials (57%) planning to take out a mortgage want personal contact – twice as many as the 26% who say they are willing to do it online, according to research by EDM Mortgage Support Services.
And just 6% said they would be comfortable getting their homeloan over the phone.
Web savvy
A substantial minority (41%) of millennials surveyed said they would be willing to use an app to buy a mortgage if one were to exist. One in four (25%) of millennials added they would be ‘happy’ or ‘very happy’ to take out a mortgage online using a so-called robo-advice service and/or deal with an automated adviser that is based on artificial intelligence.
Joe Pepper, managing director of EDM MSS, said: “Millennials have grown up immersed in technology and like to use their smart phones for all kinds of purposes, including their banking.
“However, smart phones are still largely absent from the mortgage-buying process and the industry certainly hasn’t kept up in providing the technological experience that its customers enjoy elsewhere.
“It is clear that even millennials perceive mortgages as something that is so complicated and important as to require face-to-face explanation. Part of this could be because of the absence of technology that is up to the job.”
However Pepper added that as technology changes, so too could the attitudes of millennials.
“In time we expect this to change and all the attributes of smart technology, including speed, accuracy, broad market product offerings, security and lower costs, will be brought into the mortgage process to the benefit of all concerned, including, clients, brokers, lenders, valuers and conveyancers.”