Little hope on turnaround times

Turnaround times are frequently cited by advisers as the biggest concern for the sector, and slowed further last year as banks dealt with a backlog of mortgage deferral requests and additional scrutiny on new mortgage deals. 

Gopal Sreenivasan, head of strategic partnerships at Newpark, predicts that turnaround times will stay at current levels, or even deteriorate, into the new year. 

"Turnaround times will stay around three to four weeks, and I predict it will get worse around March and April due to the traditional influx of applications happening around this time of the year," he told TMM Online. 

Mortgage Suite's Krish Krishna is not holding out hope for an improvement in the problem that has plagued the industry for years.

"There are no signs of improvements anytime soon unless they streamline the processes and get more experienced assessors onboard," he said.

Kris Pedersen of Kris Pedersen Mortgages said turnaround times were "the largest problem most advisers have faced this year", and added the issue was causing "a large amount of channel conflict" between advisers and product providers.