Mortgage Lender Benchmark H2 2024: The results

The overall average lender satisfaction rating is 83.4%, which is down 0.3% points on H1 2024. However, this figure is still the joint second highest ever recorded in our Mortgage Lender Benchmark, suggesting that lenders have continued to deliver good service to brokers. The average Net Promoter Score (NPS) dipped by 2.8 points to +35.9, which is the second highest figure ever recorded in the study.

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 has achieved our highest response rate ever, comprising 4,755 feedback entries from brokers on 116 lenders.

Key findings from our Mortgage Lender Benchmark H2 2024

• Overall satisfaction with lenders has decreased by 0.3% to 83.4%
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) is down 2.8 points at +35.9
• Building societies are once again the top-rated sector for broker satisfaction, up 0.8% points to 86.5%
• Broker ratings for banks are down 0.8% to 81.9%
• Broker ratings for specialist lenders are up 0.8% to 81.2%
• Broker ratings for lifetime lenders are down 1.7%, now at 83.8%
• Broker satisfaction with relationship managers has decreased, down 0.3% points to 81.8%

Top broker rated lenders for H2 2024:

• Top bank: Atom Bank
• Top building society: Principality Building Society
• Top buy to let lender: Landbay
• Top specialist lender: Pepper Money
• Top lifetime lender: Pure Retirement

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

“Despite a very busy end to 2024 with rates gradually reducing, it’s encouraging to see that overall levels of satisfaction with lenders across all sectors has remained at historically high levels since we started our report over six years ago.

“In addition, special mentions to Atom bank, Pepper Money, Principality and Pure Retirement for their consistent service delivery across the whole year. Such high levels of satisfaction take significant investments in both resources and technology. So we should applaud not only their efforts, but that of the whole industry in maintaining service and satisfaction during such a difficult and uncertain period.”

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.

The overall broker satisfaction for H2 2024 is now at 83.4%, down 0.3% but still the joint highest figure ever recorded

The highest lender in our report had an overall rating of 94.2%, and the lowest was 61.1%.

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 for building societies was up 0.8% points to 86.5%. They still have the highest levels of broker satisfaction of any sector, which we’ve seen throughout the last thirteen editions of our Benchmark.

Broker satisfaction levels for building societies and specialist lenders were up in H2 2024, while the overall rating for banks and lifetime lenders were slightly down.

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 2024 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 2024 version is the thirteenth edition of the report, which started in H2 2018.

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.

We captured data on 116 lenders was captured as part of the study and 65 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.