AMI: Mortgage brokers will suffer as market trouble continues in 2009

Date:Tuesday 30th September 2008
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Mortgage brokers will suffer redundancies and firm closures as net mortgage lending is not likely to increase next year, the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) has predicted.

Its research paper The Credit Crunch - One Year On foresees that net lending for 2008 will total around £55 billion.

This is half 2007's amount and the AMI does not expect it to increase over 2009.

Average incomes for mortgage intermediary businesses are expected to fall by 40 per cent this year and remain level in 2009 before recovering.

In the meantime, the industry is expected to suffer redundancies and closures of firms.

But Chris Cummings, director general of the AMI, said there may be opportunities for mortgage brokers as lenders try to balance their portfolios by "a spread of geographical risk, property sectors and borrower types".

The Building Societies Association (BSA) said that the ongoing uncertainty in the housing market as demonstrated by Land Registry data showing a 4.6 per cent annual fall in prices, is keeping mortgage approvals low.

Andrew Gall, business economist at the BSA, said that the organisation's Property Tracker survey found that most people think the prospect of continuing falls in house prices impedes house purchasing.