Interest rates inevitably dominate mortgage conversations. Bank Rate currently stands at 3.75%, and although that is below the 5.25% peak seen in 2023 and 2024, uncertainty has not disappeared. The Bank of England continues to highlight inflationary risks, while borrowers remain acutely conscious of the cost of finance.
For mortgage advisers, however, perhaps one of the biggest opportunities in the current environment is to look beyond rate.
That doesn’t mean rate is unimportant. It means recognising that clients’ property-finance requirements increasingly extend beyond the boundaries of a conventional residential mortgage.
A landlord considering refurbishment, a client purchasing a mixed-use property, an investor buying at auction, an SME acquiring its premises or a developer requiring short-term funding may already be sitting within an adviser’s client bank.
The question is whether the adviser recognises the opportunity.
PRODUCT CONVERSATIONS TO CLIENT CONVERSIONS
In mainstream mortgages, comparison understandably gravitates towards rate, affordability and monthly payment. Specialist property finance can require a different conversation.
With bridging, commercial or development finance, factors such as speed, certainty of funding, the property, the project, the borrower’s experience and the proposed exit strategy can become fundamental to finding the right solution.
That makes good advice and good broking particularly valuable.
And the specialist market itself continues to innovate. We are seeing lenders develop propositions covering commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance, mixed-use property and increasingly joined-up solutions capable of supporting clients through different stages of their property journey.
Recent examples include development products incorporating an exit facility and commercial propositions offering longer-term funding alongside bridging and development finance.
For advisers, this creates an opportunity to deepen existing client relationships rather than simply chase new customers.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BECOME AN EXPERT OVERNIGHT
One of the barriers I regularly hear is: “I don’t do specialist finance.”
My response would be you don’t necessarily have to – but you should know enough to recognise when your client may need it.
At FIBA, we want to help more advisers build that confidence.
Education is critical. The specialist market has its own terminology, lenders, criteria and processes and nobody should attempt to advise outside their knowledge and competence.
But there is now significantly more support available to advisers wanting to develop their understanding, from structured learning and lender education to the Certified Practitioner in Specialist Property Finance and the FIBA Knowledge Hub.
Equally, advisers don’t always have to handle a specialist case themselves. Working with an experienced specialist broker, packager or other appropriate partner can allow them to retain the client relationship while ensuring the customer gets the expertise they need.
The important first step is being able to spot the opportunity.
FIVE QUESTIONS ADVISERS CAN START ASKING
There are some very simple conversations advisers can introduce into their existing client reviews:
- Do you own any investment or commercial property?
- Are you considering buying, refurbishing or developing property in the next 12–24 months?
- Have you ever considered buying a property at auction?
- Do you own a business that currently rents its premises?
- Have you ever had a property transaction where a mainstream lender couldn’t meet the timescale, or the circumstances didn’t fit standard criteria?
Those questions aren’t about selling a product. They are about discovering a need.
And that is where I believe the real opportunity lies.
DIVERSIFICATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE
The current interest-rate environment presents challenges, but it should also encourage advisers to think more broadly about what constitutes a mortgage or property-finance client.
Specialist property finance isn’t a replacement for mainstream mortgage advice, nor should diversification mean stepping beyond your competence. Instead, it can be a natural extension of the relationship’s advisers have already built.
At FIBA, one of our priorities is to make that journey easier: improving education, connecting brokers with specialist lenders and partners, and helping advisers understand where opportunities exist and how to approach them appropriately.
Because sometimes the most valuable question we can ask a client isn’t ‘What rate can I get you? it’s ‘What are you trying to achieve?’.
