Legal & General say mortgage brokers have lost confidence

Date:Tuesday 25th August 2009
Author: Susanna Kavka

Confidence in the protection market among mortgage brokers has been sliding down since the beginning of the year, according to Legal & General.

Stephen Smith, Legal & General's director of housing, claims that in the first quarter of this year, 62 per cent of mortgage brokers believed their protection sales would increase over the following few months.

This dropped to 56 per cent in the second quarter and 49 per cent in the third quarter.

He said: "Selling mortgage-related protection remains challenging which is why many advisors have become involved with family and business protection."

Mr Smith was commenting on the Legal & General Advisor Confidence Index, which also indicated that fewer than half of mortgage brokers believe that business will improve in the next three months.

However, the results of a survey by uSwitch revealed that ten million UK consumers believe the housing market will recover by the end of 2009, while 44 per cent thought it would recover by the end of next year.