The survey of more than 140 intermediaries working in property and asset finance revealed that nearly one third (33%) achieved better business results than they expected in 2017.

Some 43% achieved what they had planned, while 22% of respondents described their year as slightly below target.

Just 2% reported a poor year.

When questioned about the outlook for their business in 2018, 56% of brokers predicted that it would be a good year, while 35% expected it to be ‘steady’.

The remaining 9% expressed concern that 2018 could be a difficult year for them.

Focusing on the economic challengers which may lie ahead, UTB asked brokers if they were concerned regarding the Office for Budget Responsibility’s downgrading of UK economic growth forecasts for the next three years.

While 45% of those who expressed an opinion were concerned by the pessimistic outlook, over half (55%) dismissed the forecast.

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“I’m very pleased to see that an overwhelming majority of brokers achieved or exceeded their business plans in 2017 and this reflects UTB’s experience in delivering another record-breaking year for lending,” said Harley Kagan, group managing director of United Trust Bank (pictured above).

“Like most brokers in the survey, we also have an optimistic outlook and have developed our teams with a view to increasing our business volumes across the country, while maintaining the consistency and reliability our broker partners have come to expect.

“We will also continue to explore and implement opportunities and innovations such as the substantial ENABLE Guarantee – provided by the government-backed British Business Bank – which we announced in November last year.

“This will allow us to significantly increase our development finance lending to SME housebuilders, assisting them in their vital contribution to the delivery of much-needed new housing.

Harley continued: “There will, of course, be further change and more challenges to overcome, and overcome them we will.

“The implementation of the GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] in May will require us – and most companies we deal with – to devote resource to ensuring that obligations under the new regulations are met, while remaining focused on growing our business, meeting the needs of our brokers and helping our customers to achieve their goals.”