"The easing of that lockdown, combined with the demand for house purchase created by the stamp duty holiday, has meant brokers are far more confident"
In the final quarter of 2020, 68% of brokers said that their business would remain unaffected by the pandemic, up from 59% during Q2.
Nearly a quarter (23%) said their business would actually be stronger than before the start of the virus, up from 20% in the second quarter of the year.
Conversely, the proportion of brokers stating that they would have to scale back their business has reduced from 21% in Q2 to 9% in Q4.
The survey also found that the number of brokers worried about the pandemic has fallen from a high of 66% in March to 46% in mid-December.
Richard Rowntree, managing director of mortgages at Paragon Bank, commented: “Our FACT survey shows that brokers have reported growing levels of resilience since the height of the first lockdown. During the early days of the pandemic, brokers were heading into the unknown, plus they were dealing with a complete lockdown of the housing market.
“The easing of that lockdown, combined with the demand for house purchase created by the stamp duty holiday, has meant brokers are far more confident about the longer-term prospects for their business. Many intermediaries will be busy focusing on getting clients’ deals over the line ahead of the 31 March deadline.”
