The Intermediary – February 2025 - Flipbook - Page 12
Q&A
Buckinghamshire Building Society
The Intermediary speaks with Claire Askham, head
of mortgage sales at Buckinghamshire Building
Society, about the role of lenders and brokers in
keeping homeowning dreams alive
Can you tell us a bit about
your background and your
role at Buckinghamshire
Building Society?
I’ve been in the financial industry since 2001, and
have worked in broker environments, specialist
lending, mortgage clubs and building societies, and
in both first and second charge lending.
I started out as a secured loan payout adviser
for First National Bank when it was part of Abbey
National Bank and then went to work for a secured
loan brokerage on their prime team.
When the market disappeared overnight, I got
an opportunity at Legal & General Mortgage Club,
setting up its mortgage support services team.
This was followed by sales leadership roles at
Metro Bank and Vida Home Loans, where I was
working when Covid-19 hit.
I was then fortunate to secure a key account
manager role at Buckinghamshire Building Society,
which I joined in the summer of 2020. I worked my
way back up and have been head of mortgage sales
since October 2021. My career history has given
me a really good understanding of all areas of our
industry and brought me to this point.
How have you found the mortgage
market over the past 12 months?
There’s no denying 2024 was another interesting
one, as the market continued to try and recover
and adapt to the higher interest rate environment.
It’s clear that affordability remained a challenge
for many people – that was very much a theme
for us throughout 2023. We saw an increase
in applications for impaired credit, and debt
consolidation was the most common reason for
remortgage capital raising.
In light of these affordability challenges,
we completed a thorough review of the
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The Intermediary | February 2025
Buckinghamshire Building Society product
range to make sure our mortgages remained as
accessible as possible.
We tracked trends and spoke to brokers to find
out what the barriers were, and to discover if there
were any practical, common-sense changes we
could make to help keep the market moving.
This review led to us adjusting our criteria,
reducing fees, launching new products and even
entering into completely new areas of lending for
the society.
A big part of that affordability work focused on
first-time buyers (FTBs), many of whom risked
being excluded from owning a home altogether
as a result of the higher rates and general cost-ofliving pressures.
What are your expectations
for 2025?
There were some positive signs at the end of last
year, with many of the regular surveys reporting
increased housing activity and house price growth.
At the same time, it’s suggested that there
could be four 0.25% base rate cuts this year. While
this is promising for the direction of travel, some
challenges and uncertainties remain, and we
expect affordability will continue to be an issue
this year.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis
released at the end of last year said the average
house price across the UK is now 8.6-times the
average household income, and is therefore
unaffordable for 90% of households.
There was nothing in the Autumn Budget for
first-time buyers, other than to cut the Stamp
Duty threshold, so we expect they will continue
to struggle. Even turning to the ‘Bank of Mum
and Dad’ could be more challenging, as parents
may be experiencing their own cost-of-living and
remortgaging woes.
We also await the outcome and impact of some
key regulatory reforms in renting, planning and
