At the conference, our very own sales director Gary Bailey sat on the industry leaders’ panel debate to discuss the major issues is today’s market. The topics covered spanned Brexit, buy-to-let, interest rates, the mortgage market competition review and, importantly, what a broker needs to do to win in 2017. So, what did we take from it? 

The debate commenced, unsurprisingly, with Brexit. While the panel did acknowledge that the property purchase world could slow – with one expert stating that “the real challenge is ahead of us, not behind us” – the overall response was positive. This was summed up quite simply by the point that “people still need houses and homes”, highlighting the bigger picture and the need to take a long-term view as we navigate our way out of the EU.  

As the topic changed to the buy-to-let market, we heard some interesting points on how landlord behaviour is changing. A common theme was the increase in limited company buy-to-lets, a finding that echoes what we’ve seen ourselves at Together in recent years in terms of receiving more applications from limited companies.

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When specifically discussing the government changes to the sector, it was said that the buy-to-let market had become “more professional overnight”, with agreement that the word “professional” was an accurate description of how the industry is currently navigating the changes; which was great to hear

Focus then shifted to the mortgage market competition review being undertaken by the FCA, whereby the industry watchdog will investigate whether prospective homebuyers are given the best advice and tools to “make effective decisions”. There was discussion about the wide-ranging study – which will examine all areas of the industry, including broker fees – although the general consensus from the panel was that it was likely to have its greatest impact on the new-build housing market.

Finally, as the conversation shifted to whether the digital age was a threat to the broker industry, Gary led the deliberation, stating that it will revolutionise how we all work over the next 10 years, so brokers need to embrace it. Others on the panel believed it was a threat, but quickly agreed that with any threat comes opportunity, reiterating that brokers should embrace the digital culture, as many lenders are already doing. 

All in all, it’s great to see the sector thriving and engaging in healthy debate about the challenges that we all face.