The Intermediary – January 2026 - Flipbook - Page 51
SPECIALIST FINANCE
Opinion
Remortgages will
drive demand
in 2026
T
he laer part of Q2
and the early weeks
of Q3 were full of
conversations that all
began in much the
same way: residential
borrowers asking whether to wait,
brokers doing their best to steady
nerves, and landlords holding back
until the Budget dust seled.
None of this was surprising. It
was driven far more by the timing of
the Budget, the intense speculation
leading up to it and a wider sense of
uncertainty which had lile to do with
rates or products, and everything to do
with people wanting to make the right
call at the right time.
That same paern came through
clearly in the Twenty7tec search data
for November. Total buy-to-let (BTL)
searches fell more than 13% month on
month and purchase activity hit its
lowest point of the financial year.
Residential searches also dipped,
down 14.64% month on month and
2.91% year-on-year, but remortgaging
remained the most resilient part of
the market. Residential remortgage
searches reached 533,653, falling
12.52% month-on-month but rising
12.51% year-on-year.
Total remortgage searches stood
at 691,861, down 14.51% month on
month but 7.93% higher than last year.
The sustained rise in year-on-year
remortgage activity reflects the steady
flow of borrowers reaching the end
of fixed terms and seeking stability
through the winter.
Moving into 2026, there is lile to
suggest that the momentum in the
remortgage market will fade, and
in truth the opposite feels far more
likely. At a recent event, I heard that
the number of residential and BTL
products due to mature in 2026 sits at a
record high.
GRANT HENDRY
is director of sales
at Foundation Home Loans
I don’t have the precise figure to
hand and it was shared informally,
but when you think about where the
market was five and even two years
ago, it’s not hard to understand why
this expectation holds weight.
Among this wide mix of
borrowers, there will be many whose
circumstances are no longer as simple
as they were two or five years ago and
the reality is that life has changed for
a large number of people since they
last fixed.
Back on track
Some may have moved from PAYE to
self-employment, and others may now
rely on more than one income stream.
Then there are the ones who have been
through a separation and need to keep
the family home on a different footing
and others who have encountered a
credit issue during a difficult period
but have since stabilised.
Every broker will recognise these
scenarios straight away. They are no
longer considered to be outlier, but
everyday cases.
That maers, because tight loan-toincome (LTI) caps still dominate much
of the mainstream. Those rules work
well for simple profiles, but they leave
less room for clients whose finances
don’t follow a single paern. And that
gap between mainstream criteria and
real-life cases is only widening.
This is why specialist lenders will
play an even bigger role in the 2026
remortgage market. On the residential
side, flexible assessments and manual
underwriting are becoming essential
to support borrowers with layered
income, up to 100% of secondary
income, one year’s accounts for selfemployed clients, and structured
options for borrowers with recent
credit issues. For someone coming
to the end of their deal with a more
complex story than last time, these
details make all the difference.
BTL will follow a similar path.
Landlords did pause in November,
with buy-to-let remortgage searches
falling month-on-month, but they
still rose more than 5% year-on-year.
Many landlords want to refinance
before exploring further investment
with some needing to adjust loan
structures and others looking to
release capital to improve their
properties, notably to improve energy
efficiency.
Portfolio landlords, in particular,
will rely on lenders who can work
with multi-unit blocks, houses in
multiple occupation (HMOs) and
mixed-use stock, and who understand
the balance between yield, cost
and long-term planning. We also
expect continued demand for early
remortgaging, especially from
landlords who used bridging or bought
at auction and now need a longerterm option.
So while early 2026 may not bring
a surge in new purchases, it will
bring a steady rise in clients who need
lenders to look at them in a more
rounded way. Remortgaging is where
those needs come to the surface, and
it’s where the specialist market will
continue to show its value.
In short, potential and existing
homeowners want clarity and
a fair assessment of their real
circumstances. Landlords want
stability while they plan ahead.
Brokers want lenders who can work
through the grey areas rather than
turn away from them. And these
are just some of the reasons why the
remortgage market will continue to
set the pace in the months ahead. ●
January 2026 | The Intermediary
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