Industry experts claim the number of mortgage brokers has now fallen to around 10,000.
Speaking at a recent Mortgage Strategy and Abbey for Intermediaries round table, Ben Thompson, head of mortgages at Legal & General, says the accepted figure of 12,000 is probably too high.
He says he knows of a lender that has dealt with just over 10,000 brokers in the last 12 months.
The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries’ figures show there were between 30,000 and 32,000 brokers at the peak of the market and 12,000 three months ago.
But Jonathan Cornell, head of communications at First Action Finance, says: “I think the total number of mortgage brokers is now less than 10,000.”
Robert Sinclair, director of AMI, says the current figures are the ones he works around.
He adds: “Whether we drop below the magic 10,000 number is not known. But we continue to see people leaving the industry and the number of brokers continues to decline.”
Thompson adds: “You don’t want the number of brokers to fall too far because the top five or six lenders are saying that in two years’ time the mortgage market will be back to a degree.”
The Council of Mortgage Lenders last week gave a gloomy warning that the Mortgage Market Review is fatally flawed and could cause negative net lending for years to come.
Net lending is currently less than £10bn compared with over £100bn in 2007.
Speaking at the CML’s Future Housing Conference last week, Michael Coogan, director-general of the CML, cautioned that it was vital that the MMR was re-evaluated now.
He says: “The risk of negative net lending is real as we enter 2011 because of funding issues, but if the un-spoken aim is to shrink mortgage debt, this could become the norm.”
Coogan adds that more needs to be done to slow down the Financial Services Authority’s steamroller and that the trade body is planning to release its own research assessing the impact of the MMR on consumers.
He says that the unintended consequences of new mortgage regulation are likely to stifle innovation and opportunity.
Speaking at a recent Mortgage Strategy and Abbey for Intermediaries round table, Ben Thompson, head of mortgages at Legal & General, says the accepted figure of 12,000 is probably too high.
He says he knows of a lender that has dealt with just over 10,000 brokers in the last 12 months.
The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries’ figures show there were between 30,000 and 32,000 brokers at the peak of the market and 12,000 three months ago.
But Jonathan Cornell, head of communications at First Action Finance, says: “I think the total number of mortgage brokers is now less than 10,000.”
Robert Sinclair, director of AMI, says the current figures are the ones he works around.
He adds: “Whether we drop below the magic 10,000 number is not known. But we continue to see people leaving the industry and the number of brokers continues to decline.”
Thompson adds: “You don’t want the number of brokers to fall too far because the top five or six lenders are saying that in two years’ time the mortgage market will be back to a degree.”
The Council of Mortgage Lenders last week gave a gloomy warning that the Mortgage Market Review is fatally flawed and could cause negative net lending for years to come.
Net lending is currently less than £10bn compared with over £100bn in 2007.
Speaking at the CML’s Future Housing Conference last week, Michael Coogan, director-general of the CML, cautioned that it was vital that the MMR was re-evaluated now.
He says: “The risk of negative net lending is real as we enter 2011 because of funding issues, but if the un-spoken aim is to shrink mortgage debt, this could become the norm.”
Coogan adds that more needs to be done to slow down the Financial Services Authority’s steamroller and that the trade body is planning to release its own research assessing the impact of the MMR on consumers.
He says that the unintended consequences of new mortgage regulation are likely to stifle innovation and opportunity.
