Education is the watchword among today’s mortgage brokers
An education-led approach is the long-term strategy that uncovers the real client opportunities in the current market, according to industry experts.
At the heart of this approach is the use of in-person workshops, online courses and thought-leadership content on platforms such as LinkedIn to engage first-time buyers, sometimes long before they are ready to speak to a broker, says Rhys Edwards, mortgage consultant at Brooks Mortgages, pictured above right.
By adopting a strategy that seeks to inform and empower early-stage would-be borrowers, he says, brokers can attract those prospects who are most likely to convert in the long run.
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It is a view echoed by Gary Das, managing director of Active Mortgages, who says the real opportunities in the current market lie in taking a much more proactive approach than many brokers are used to.
“A lot of advisers are still waiting for ‘ready-to-go’ leads and appointments, and I think that’s where they’re missing it.
“The game now is building visibility, building trust, and staying consistent long enough to be the obvious choice when that buyer is ready.”
Putting down roots
At the same time, a strategy that focuses on education often makes the later stages of arranging the right mortgage deal much easier.
In Edwards’s experience, getting in early among first-time buyers makes the rest of the buying journey significantly smoother.
That is because, he says, well-informed borrowers make more informed and realistic borrowing decisions that fit their actual financial situation — not just what lenders say they are eligible to borrow — when their broker has coached them from the start of their first-time buying journey.
From ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ to ‘Bank of Family’
Malcolm Davidson, managing director of UK Moneyman, pictured above left, is doing his bit to educate first-time buyers too.
He has been busy recently reframing the debate around the “Bank of Mum and Dad” into what he terms the “Bank of Family” among his clients.
Drawing on the Bank of Mum and Dad is nothing new when it comes to first-time buyers, but the bank is tapped out in many instances as parents themselves struggle to make mortgage payments, he says.
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“[Parents] will possibly still have a mortgage and debts of their own, let alone substantial spare savings to donate. We call this generation the ‘squeezed middle’.”
Davidson suggests brokers should consider one generation above the parents, where the landscape is often quite different.
According to the ONS, households aged 65 and over hold more than 40 per cent of UK housing wealth.
That means that grandparents, who are typically in their seventies, will often be living in a mortgage-free property primed for an equity release.
The problem, Davidson says, is that the older generations either do not realise that they can access their home equity to help out their grandchildren, or are reluctant to embrace such schemes because of their legacy reputation.
That means the transition from the Bank of Mum and Dad to the Bank of Family will often require a diplomatic approach on the part of the broker if it is to be carried out successfully.
Educating clients and their grandparents, especially when it comes to encouraging seniors to buy into equity release, can be tricky, but it need not be insurmountable, Davidson says.
“Although interest rates can be high on lifetime mortgages, there are now safeguards in place, such as a no-negative-equity guarantee, which means more first-time buyers are amenable to this type of arrangement.”
Springboard mortgages and deposit innovation
The springboard mortgage is a useful option for grandparents looking to help out grandchildren – either via an equity release or a straightforward cash gift.
This type of arrangement works well if the grandparent is concerned about future care costs, as the cash acts as a deposit for the grandchild but is not given away permanently.
To facilitate this type of transaction, the broker will set up a “helper” account with funds from a grandparent or benefactor, representing 10 per cent of the property price.
This is essentially the deposit on the property, but it is refunded to the guarantor at the end of the mortgage and earns interest while it sits as a guarantee.
A balancing act
While this strategy addresses the sticking point of the deposit, brokers need to be aware that this type of mortgage can be a balancing act.
Higher monthly cost: because the borrower is borrowing 100 per cent of the money, the monthly payments are higher than if, say, they simply put down a 10 per cent deposit on the property.
The double squeeze: to make this type of mortgage work, brokers often have to use a 40-year term to stretch the monthly payments thinly enough for the buyer’s income to support a 100 per cent loan and to pass the lender’s stress-test rules.
Cutting through the confusion
Overcoming the reluctance to pursue equity release is just one — albeit important — piece of the education puzzle for brokers.
Brokers now need to be adept at cutting through the noise more generally, especially in a high and sticky interest rate environment, and where mixed messages around affordability criteria and deposit accumulation abound in the media, says Das.
“First-time buyers are still very much in the market, but they’re more confused than ever, and most of them don’t really know what’s true anymore. That’s created a bit of a shift in how advisers need to show up.”
The conflict in the Middle East and the uncertainty over further loosening following the recent round in December 2025 have only added to first-time buyers’ confusion, leading to a mixed response: some are choosing long-term fixes, while others are opting for short-term options, betting that the uncertainty will be short-lived.
“But honestly, [the] product is secondary. Most first-time buyers don’t choose a broker because of a product; they choose them because they trust them to guide them,” says Das.
“The [brokers] doing well aren’t leading with products or rates; they’re the ones simplifying things, breaking it down, and helping buyers understand what’s actually possible for them today, not what they’ve read in a headline.”
For Das, this means the most productive strategy now is to build a value proposition that features quizzes, guides, checklists and templates — what he terms a “lead magnet” approach to relationship-building.
“That kind of interactive, useful content works particularly well with first-time buyers because they want something practical they can engage with, not just more information.”
