The Intermediary –- June 2026 - Flipbook - Page 6
From the editor. . .
his is a market that loves to
talk about technology. Every
conference, interview and press
release touches on it at some point,
and with good reason. Technology
is an important factor in geing
the property buying – and financing – process
moving in the way it should. This is only more
important with the looming threat of unfulfilled
housing delivery hanging over us, let alone all
the barriers and constraints facing the borrowers
themselves. With all the tech out there in other
markets, this is at least one part of the process we
can make easier, surely?
And yet, for all our talk, and all the millions
being spent advancing the so-called revolution,
there are still many advisers and consumers
who are being le frustrated by a poorly
managed process. Fragmented technology
stacks, increasing compliance administration,
multiple portals – and in the end, the bulk of
the customer’s experience is still ultimately
just going back and forth over email. If it wasn’t
for the lack of an AOL logo at the top, it might
feel barely distinguishable from methods of
communication 20 years ago. Or at least, that’s
what I’ve experienced in my own (still ongoing)
transaction, which you’ll be glad to hear will
apparently continue to provide fodder for these
comments until the cows come home.
There’s a lot of businesses in this market –
some of which we speak to in this very issue –
doing great stuff around streamlining the process
and removing the administrative burden, and
T
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The Intermediary | June 2026
Jessica Bird
@IntermediaryUK
www.facebook.com/IntermediaryUK
Contributors
The Team
Helen Thorne
yet until the rest of the market catches up, it
still feels like the same old clunky, exasperating
process that leaves most buyers vowing ‘never
again’ and most brokers reaching for the wine at
the end of a long day.
I personally have been reminded that, while
email is a perfectly adequate – if sadly quotidian,
considering how much new exciting tech I write
about and never get to use – way to do things, any
system is also only as good as the person on the
other end of the screen. If they aren’t well trained
to communicate effectively – whether that’s with
the broker, each other, or the borrower – then the
process will be frustrating, no maer how shiny
the medium.
Indeed, Claude might be able to help you write
an email in a much more smooth, professional
manner, but it cannot get blood from a stone if
the person using it isn’t ‘optimised’.
Meanwhile, the market continues to move
at pace. The FCA’s mortgage rule overhaul
consultation, if you’ll permit me to be briefly
and uncharacteristically optimistic, could well
make it easier for lenders to support borrowers
in cohorts that were previously underserved, like
the self-employed.
But this means those same lenders will be
under pressure to translate reform into realworld borrowing power. Tech must not only
be a compliance aid and security service, but a
true growth enabler, helping them process more
cases. It’s going to take more than talk. ●
Aaron Shinwell | Aidan Walker | Alan Fletcher
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