Applying for a mortgage in the UK has been slammed by consumers many of whom say the anxiety, problems, paperwork and delays it causes when moving home are a major stumbling block.
The research, among some 2,000 people by banking tech provider Ohpen, also highlights how many younger first time buyers, after going through the mortgage application meat grinder, wished they had delayed their home buying plans and rented for longer, such was the awfulness of the process.
Ohpen, which is a SaaS core banking provider, is calling for more to be done including better education on how game the system when applying for a mortgage including more online tools.
Over 80% of the people quizzed by the firm who had applied for a mortgage said mortgages and financial education should be on the secondary school curriculum, with many admitting they didn’t understand basic mortgage terms before the application process. Half said they became stressed and experienced anxiety.
Inefficient
“These findings are a damning indictment of the inefficient mortgage application processes delivered by banks’ archaic legacy systems,” says Jerry Mulle (main image), UK Managing Director at Ohpen.
“Hundreds of thousands of Brits apply for a mortgage every year, and so the total impact on mental health and wellbeing, consumer spending and productivity is significant.
“We need to see a coordinated effort to make the process more transparent and inclusive from the outset and speed up the application process by taking complex legacy technology out of the equation and enabling better real-time data sharing between all the stakeholders involved in the home-buying journey.”
