Seven in 10 brokers (72%) believe the specialist market now presents a bigger opportunity than ever before, according to a new study from United Trust Bank (UTB).

The group also found that 60% of brokers who took part in the research said that they had written more specialist mortgage cases in the last 12 months, as a proportion of their business, than they did in the previous year.

According to the findings, 17% of respondents also indicated that more than half of their cases now required a specialist lender.

Over 130 brokers took part in UTB’s quantitative research, and the lender has published a white paper that looks at trends in the specialist residential and buy-to-let mortgage market as well as second charge loans.

UTB also found that 81% of brokers said they are seeing more customers with financial blips/adverse credit including defaults and CCJs, and that 81% also believe that helping customers with adverse credit is the biggest area of opportunity for brokers in the specialist sector.

The vast majority of brokers (87%) also reported that customers who come to them have usually been turned away by mainstream lenders or other brokers

Director of mortgages at UTB, Buster Tolfree, commented that specialist mortgage lending had “increased in importance”, and its place in the market is only going to grow.

“For many customers it will be their only route to reaching their property-owning aspirations,” Tolfree added. “Particularly as mainstream lenders are more frequently unable or unwilling to serve borrowers with more complex needs.

“The lender community can do more to help brokers recognise and then take full advantage of the opportunities the specialist lending market has to offer.”

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