Financial Service Award winners, Mortgage Medics

I was thrilled to collect the Financial Services Award on behalf of the whole Mortgage Medics team at last month’s County Business Club (virtual) awards.  To be honest I was sceptical about the idea of a virtual awards night but it was a fantastic event and great to see local businesses recognised.

I must pay tribute to my team who have been phenomenal working from home for the majority of the last 13 months – every single one of them has been amazing, despite the various challenges everyone has faced, from home-schooling, to setting up a home workspace, and missing out on that all important sense of togetherness that we all miss from the workplace. 

But the changes enforced by COVID-19 have also provided opportunities and inspired innovation, upskilling with new technology, and it’s taken us in a direction I never thought possible – a predominantly remote workforce, happy, productive and still delivering great results for our clients.

Since the turn of the year (actually since June 2020) the property market has been busy, house prices have been slowly increasing and our work has been dominated by two things – the return of higher LTV (loan-to-value) lending and the stamp duty holiday extension.

The return of 90% and 95% mortgages, will once again allow those with smaller deposits to move and get on the ladder.  These have partly returned through natural market forces as we emerge from COVID restrictions, and partly thanks to the government’s new Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, which I wrote about recently here.  It’s good news for the market but one should always think carefully and weigh up the pros and cons, especially as the rates on offer for these types of product are significantly higher than similar deals pre-COVID. 

The Stamp Duty holiday extension means that buyers can continue to save up to £15,000 if they complete a purchase before 30th June 2021, tapering to up to £2,500 if they complete before 30th September 2021.  Thereafter we expect Stamp Duty rates to return to pre-COVID levels.  The Stamp Duty holiday has undoubtedly been a success; it’s allowed more homeowners to seek out new surroundings than would otherwise have been able, and it’s also supported countless industries that benefit from housing transactions – think estate agents, solicitors, mortgage advisers, removals, DIY suppliers, building trades etc  Time will tell the full picture but when you think how many jobs in these industries may have been at risk, it looks like a shrewd bit of fiscal policy.

As we head into Summer and hopefully the relaxation of the restrictions we’ve all been under for more than a year now, I really look forward to re-engaging with our local business community.  We’ve all been trying to survive and manage the last 13 months, hopefully the rest of 2021 will be about thriving and rediscovering the many facets of our work that keep us engaged and enthused in our work.

Sam Murphy
Managing Director – Mortgage Medics
sam@mortgage-medics.com
www.mortgage-medics.com

Mortgage Medics Limited is an appointed representative of The On-Line Partnership Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority

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