This year’s event — which ran between 10am and 2pm on Wednesday 25^th January — featured speeches, virtual exhibition stands, and a networking room.

The day centred around a panel discussion chaired by Brightstar’s CEO Rob Jupp (pictured above), which was headlined by Adrian Moloney, group intermediary director at OSB Group; Joshua Elash, director at MT Finance; Steve Seal CEO at Bluestone; and Marie Grundy, managing director for residential and second-charge mortgages at West One.

Here are the key points discussed during the main panel debate.

The potential shift towards shorter-term fixes

When asked about how the market has recovered following the ongoing volatility exhibited in 2022, the panel leaned towards the notion that the market is shifting towards shorter-term fixes.

On the topic of fixed rates, Joshua said: “Given that the chaos caused by the mini-Budget has begun to ease, the market feels a lot more positive as we’re heading into the new year.

“A lot of the conversations we’re having around fixed rates revolve around five-year fixes. This was in part driven by where five-year and two-year swap rates sat — the five-year product was inherently more competitive than the two-year one.

“Everyone had anxiety about rising interest rates, so it just made sense to fix for a five-year period.”

Joshua stated that, as the Bank of England base rate is expected to hit its high at around 4%, more people might shift to shorter-term fixes, on the basis that these might be better for them.

Marie added that she expects rates to remain “relatively stable” this year.

“One thing working in financial services has taught me is that it’s very difficult to predict change longer than two months out.

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“With the cost of living crisis, the invasion of Ukraine, and Covid the year before, I’m hoping 2023 will be quite calm and stable in comparison,” she stated.

However, Marie believes the market will not see a return to lower base rates anytime soon.

Room for more?

The panel also discussed whether the market would allow space for new entrants — when asked this question, Marie claimed there was enough room indeed, adding that competition is a good thing for the market.

“Complacency is the enemy of progress, so I think having a competitive market is healthy for both consumers and for lenders.

“In any sector, new entrants are valuable if they’re bringing something new to the party.

“There is good coverage within the specialist mortgage market, but there is room for new entrants providing they’re bringing something different.”

However, Adrian does not believe that new players have brought anything new to the table.

“I haven’t seen anyone do anything really different over the last few years, and I’m not sure what gaps they’ll be able to fill, other than going up the risk curve; [ . . . ] I think the market is pretty well covered across all bases.”

During this conversation, Joshua said he doesn’t anticipate any new players enter the bridging market in the near future, as a result of tightening debt markets and a “flight to quality”.

“We went through a period of unprecedented liquidity — a guy and his dog could get a funding line and start trading as a bridging finance company.

“Now, the people that play in this space are becoming far more discerning about who they back.

“There’s many established institutional bridging finance lenders in the market — however, there’s also some lenders which aren’t as disciplined, which will run into trouble and create a bad narrative, so I don’t think there’s going to be a huge amount of enthusiasm from capital markets to back new entrants in the year ahead.”