Brokers 'confident about the mortgage market'

Posted: 07 May 2010 10:59:47 GMT

Mortgage brokers have seen business improve over recent months and are confident about their business prospects for the next quarter, one expert has suggested.

Ben Wilkie, editor of What Mortgage, says it is realistic for brokers to expect to do more business over the coming three months.

He states it is likely that first-time buyers will find it easier to enter the housing market for the rest of the year, as it is now "fairly easy" to get an 85 to 90 per cent loan-to-value deal.

"First-time buyers now don't have to pay the stamp duty on properties up to £250,000 which is a good couple of grand saving, which is a couple of thousand which they can add to the deposit," he adds.

Mr Wilkie's comments come in response to a new study by Paragon Mortgages which shows that mortgage brokers expect to conduct 6.7 per cent more business in the second half of 2010 than they did in the first.

According to the Bank of England, some 48,901 mortgages were approved in the month of March.

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