Retaining your clients is more important than ever

Inflation. Rising cost of living. Energy prices. All topics that have been dominating UK news headlines since the start of the year, and with economists predicting that further increases could be on the horizon, it’s understandable that now more than ever your clients may be worried about either getting a mortgage or remortgaging.

While there has always been a need to provide more support for those who want to utilise low deposit schemes to help them onto the first step of the ladder, it is essential to also bear in mind the second steppers, home movers and remortgagers. They may not need as much support in the actual home buying process, but they do need to understand how their affordability has been impacted and what this means when it comes to the options available to them.

Remortgaging is strong and set to remain so throughout the year
The Covid-19 pandemic changed a lot more than any of us could have predicted, but one of the biggest trends that arose from the lockdowns was the importance of making the most of our homes and gardens. Unsurprisingly, this meant a lot of your clients will have been looking to extend, landscape and adapt their homes and for those with equity in their properties, to remortgage to free up money to renovate.

Then there are the customers who were financially affected by the pandemic who have been joined by the many people affected by the rising cost of living. Those of your clients whose income took a hit throughout 20/21, those who have been through life events and maybe even those who after the last 18-24 months are re-evaluating their finances and investments. And it is these clients that may find themselves needing a specialist mortgage solution for the very first time and who will need your support with explaining the difference between a specialist lender and a traditional high street lender. Knowing that with circumstances such as variable income, overtime or credit blips doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t still get the mortgage they need for their circumstances.

With Kensington, customers with variable income, credit blips or those who have moved from permanent to self-employment can still get a mortgage and benefit from things such as cashback, free valuations or free legals. Plus, we don’t charge application fees.

For like-for-like remortgage cases, we can speed up the process for both broker and their customers by using automated valuations.

Product Transfers provide swift, secure peace of mind
For customers nearing the end of their fixed term, Product Transfers are a convenient solutions when there have been no changes to the customer’s circumstances, and they want the security of being on a fixed rate in a market with fluctuating interest rates and cost of living increases.

Kensington has just launched their own Product Transfer portal for brokers which offers a seamless, fully digital end-to-end experience. For every client they switch, Kensington pays a procuration fee in the usual way, and they can see the same options as their clients to make the conversation between them easier.

Ways we support our broker partners
As your guidance and advice is as sought after as ever, this is the ideal time to look to lenders for support and service to help you help your clients. At Kensington, we are always looking at what we can do to offer more support for our broker partners so that you can serve your clients as easily as possible.

From our new Product Transfer portal, to our dedicated service hub, K-hub, through to webchat with our TBDMs. In addition, our market-leading webinars provide market updates, trends and insights from industry experts and count towards your CPD requirement. Our most recent webinar: Inflation, Affordability & how it’s impacting the mortgage market is available on our YouTube now.