Mortgage Lender Benchmark H2 2023: The results

Today we’ve released the eleventh edition of our Mortgage Lender Benchmark, covering broker opinions on UK mortgage lenders for the second half of 2023.

Despite a slight dip from the record broker satisfaction levels seen in H1 2023, our latest results have remained fairly stable, as lenders appear to have largely coped with the ongoing market turbulence caused by further rate rises in the latter part of the year.

The results form part of our twice-yearly Mortgage Lender Benchmark, which analyses the state of the mortgage industry according to brokers’ views. The latest edition comprises feedback from over 792 mortgage brokers on 105 lenders.

Key findings from our Mortgage Lender Benchmark H2 2023

Overall satisfaction with lenders has slightly deceased, down 0.5% to 82.9%

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is marginally down 1.8 points at 32.2. Scores ranged from -26.7 to +69.1 for the lenders in the report

Building societies are once again the top-rated sector for broker satisfaction, but were down 1.0% to 84.7%

Broker ratings for specialist lenders are down 2.4% to 79.6%

Broker ratings for lifetime lenders are up 3.4%, now at 83.6%

83% of brokers feel that BDMs still play a vital role in supporting the intermediary and lender relationship

Top broker rated lenders for H2 2023:

Top bank: Atom Bank

Top building society: Coventry Building Society

Top buy to let lender: Metro Bank

Top specialist lender: Interbay and Landbay

Top lifetime lender: Canada Life

Commenting on the findings, Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People said:

“Despite volatility and pressures across all aspects of the mortgage process continuing into the second half of the year, the results in our eleventh edition of the Mortgage Lender Benchmark are encouraging. Amidst a backdrop of challenging market conditions, lenders have continued to deliver a great service and experience to brokers and their customers, with just a small dip in the record overall satisfaction scores seen in H1 2023. With recent market talk of rate rises potentially coming to an end, it’ll be interesting to see how this continues into next year.”

Overall ratings for mortgage lenders

We asked brokers to give a score for satisfaction on a scale of one to five, for each of the last five mortgage lenders they’ve attempted to place a case with. This gave us an overall picture of broker satisfaction in the market, and for the individual lenders.

After satisfaction went up to 83.4% in H2 2022, the highest score we’ve ever recorded, overall broker satisfaction for H1 2023 is now down to 82.9%.

The highest lender in our report had an overall rating of 96.7%, and the lowest was 66.7%.

How the different mortgage sectors compare

When we analyse broker feedback, we split the UK mortgage lenders into four sectors. Banks, building societies, specialist lenders and lifetime lenders.

Overall satisfaction was slightly down 1% to 84.7%. However, they still have the highest levels of broker satisfaction of any sector, which we’ve seen throughout the last eleven editions of our Benchmark.

With most sectors marginally down, lifetime lenders have bucked the general trend and seen an increase in their metrics. Overall satisfaction has increased by 3.4% to 83.6%

Download a summary of the report now

To download a summary copy of the report or to purchase your full copy, head to our dedicated Mortgage Lender Benchmark H2 2023 page.

About the Mortgage Lender Benchmark

The Mortgage Lender Benchmark is a bi-annual report released by Smart Money People in June and December each year.

The H2 2023 version is the eleventh edition of the report, which started in H2 2018.

The report captured feedback from over 792 brokers.

Mortgage brokers were asked to leave feedback on the last five lenders they’ve attempted to place a case with recently, as well as other providers they use within their mortgage business, and their comments on the mortgage market in general.

The data capture period was 15 September – 25 October 2023.

Data on 105 lenders was captured as part of the study and 51 lenders feature in the in-depth analysis

Smart Money People analyses the comments that brokers provide when asked what they like or what could be improved for each lender. These are mapped across 20 themes to give a rich insight into how each lender is performing.