More ‘energy’ in market as confidence rebounding, lender says

Ryan Etchells, the chief commercial officer of lender Together, said more people who might be rejected by mainstream banks are looking for a loan.

If you want to sell by Christmas, you might want your home on the market by early November (Alamy/PA)

Confidence has started to return to the lending market with more borrowers encouraged by costs coming down and businesses hopeful of political stability, a lender has said.

Ryan Etchells, the chief commercial officer of lender Together, said more people who might be rejected by mainstream banks are looking for a loan.

The Bank of England cutting interest rates this month, alongside expectations that costs will come down further, is helping kickstart demand in the market, he said.

Furthermore, a new Labour government has helped businesses and lenders feel they can plan for the longer term, following a period of successive prime ministers leading to shorter-term decisions.

He said this was already taking shape in the buy-to-let market which is starting to recover after being hammered in recent years.

We're seeing the specialist market grow at a little bit of a faster fashion than the core mortgage market

Ryan Etchells, chief commercial officer at Together

Furthermore, Mr Etchells said there had been “a lot more energy” in the specialist lending market over the past two months.

“We’re seeing the specialist market grow at a little bit of a faster fashion than the core mortgage market.

“You’ve got people that have been affected by what’s been going on over the past two years – maybe they’ve changed jobs, maybe they’re self-employed – and they’re the type of borrowers that need lenders to take a more commonsense view on things.”

Mainstream banks tend to “apply minimal effort to get the job done” when it comes to credit and affordability checks, with Mr Etchells adding that it can be a “lazy” approach not to fully assess people’s finances.

Major high street banks over recent years have highlighted their stringent affordability tests in order to avoid large numbers of people falling behind on repayments.

Together, which started offering loans 50 years ago, said it had a record month of lending in June with nearly £330 million in its loan book, bringing the total this year to more than £7 billion.