These rates are not especially expensive and it is partly that driving more borrowers to remortgage off SVR when perhaps they have felt lenders’ tightening criteria since the financial crisis would have prohibited them getting a better rate. Advisers have a responsibility to revisit clients who have not remortgaged in several years – with the base rate now at 0.25 per cent and set to go even lower, there is no excuse not to go back to clients to review the rate they are on and consider whether they could save money by remortgaging.
Just three years ago they might have struggled; now, brokers have access to a range of lenders competing to get this business in. Even where advisers are unsure of the options available, increasingly networks will have a panel of specialists who can work with brokers and their clients or on a referral basis. Either way, there is opportunity to help clients who have suffered cashflow issues in the past rebuild their financial futures and earn a healthy income yourself in the process.
Lucy Hodge is managing director of Vantage Finance
Key points
It is borrowers who do not fit the mold who desperately need a qualified mortgage adviser to assist them.
Sub-prime as a category of borrower never went away.
Brokers have access to a range of lenders competing to get this business.
