A widespread definition reads – ‘the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are shared by most people and regarded as normal or conventional’. Which is fair enough. But, is one person’s perception of mainstream the same as another’s? Not necessarily. So does this mean the long established tag of ‘mainstream mortgage market’ might be a little misleading?
The jury is out. However, it’s fair to say that the boundaries are far less clear than they were five years ago and nowhere near as defined as 10 to 15 years ago. But let’s for a moment forget about how we define particular products or how they might sit in the old school lending flow chart and understand howthey are being utilised to successfully meet modern day borrowing requirements.
Let’s take bridging finance for example. Many brokers are now using bridging much more often than they used to. There are many reasons for this. Brokers and, to a somewhat lesser extent, consumers are now far more aware of the benefits attached to this facility. Speed within the transactional process is also clearly more of a necessity than ever for growing numbers of borrowers.
Then we have cost. In fairness, these have been high and prohibitive in the past but with many bridging rates now uber low, these can now justifiably be viewed as being cheaper than a credit card, an unsecured loan and some mortgages - in certain circumstances.
Another major consideration to take into account are the continued affordability issues surrounding first charge loans and the log jam this has created for brokers, and their clients, in getting lending decisions in any sort of timely fashion. Only the other day I noticed a large level of disgruntled twitter chat within the intermediary community around some big name (or should that be mainstream?) lenders and their current service levels - or more to the point lack of them. Now it’s not for me to comment direct on these but what I can do is really bang the drum for specialist lending alternatives, their general service standards and the speed taken when it comes to decisions, offers and funds being released.
To go full circle, in my eyes mainstream means sensible, affordable and accessible solutions which match a borrower’s needs, whatever the product may be. So how should we badge up bridging finance? Well, how about we don’t pigeon hole it and consider it as a genuine modern day lending alternative and one which has a number of providers ready, willing and able to lend, together with excellent service levels to back this up.
