UK Mortgages 2009: Competitive Dynamics in the UK Mortgage Market

DATAMONITOR VIEW 1
CATALYST 1
SUMMARY 1
ANALYSIS 2
Lehman Brothers' collapse led to the mortgage market being marked by consolidation and government support 2
Consolidation and government intervention mark the 2008 mortgage market 2
Lloyds TSB merged with HBOS and the Lloyds Banking Group was born 3
Bradford & Bingley was nationalized, with Abbey buying its savings branch 3
The Britannia and Co-operative Financial Services merger partnered Britannia's mortgage product strength with the Co-op's extensive retail banking portfolio 3
The mortgage market looks very different from in 2007 4
The number of mortgage lenders operating in the UK market has declined over the last year 4
Most mortgage providers saw a fall in gross advances, while balances outstanding saw moderate growth 5
Only HSBC saw an increase in advances among the top 10 mortgage providers 5
Northern Rock dropped out of the top 10 mortgage providers in terms of gross lending 7
Customer retention rather than acquisition is the current focus 7
Balances outstanding increased in 2008, but at a slower rate than in previous years 8
The UK mortgage market is much smaller, but competition is beginning to heat up among the major players 10
HSBC's RateMatcher, combined with other attractive offerings, strengthens its acquisitions stance 10
First Direct introduces a unique flexible offset tracker mortgage 10
Woolwich responded to HSBC's pricing challenge with its own offering 11
Nationwide Building Society came to the aid of smaller building societies but more may struggle in the future 12
Monetary policy has been critical for preventing a complete credit drought 12
Base rates have been at their 300 year low for the last six months 12
The major lenders have decreased the rates on their two-year fixed rate mortgages, but the maximum LTVs have decreased 14
The future of the UK mortgage market looks eventful 15
Smaller players could see a return but they are likely to remain hamstrung by their access to funds 15
New players are emerging at the edges of the market, but the scale of their impact is still hard to ascertain 16
Interest rate increases could ignite the mortgage market 16
APPENDIX 18
Supplementary data 18
Definitions 20
Bank of England base rate 20
Fixed rate mortgage 20
Gross advances 20
Subprime 20
Remortgaging 20
Tracker mortgage 20
Variable mortgage 20
Methodology 20
Further reading 20
Ask the analyst 21
Datamonitor consulting 21
Disclaimer 21
List of Tables
Table 1: Two-year fixed rate products by mortgage lenders 15
Table 2: Comparison of mortgage rates, Libor and two-year swap rates. September 2008-September 2009 18
Table 3: Top 15 lenders by total mortgage lending, market shares for 2007 and 2008 19
Table 4: Top 15 lenders by total mortgages balances outstanding, market shares for 2007 and 2008 19
List of Figures
Figure 1: Gross mortgage advances fell by 30%, with only HSBC and the Bank of Ireland seeing increases 5
Figure 2: Only Bradford & Bingley saw a decline in market share among the top 10 lenders 6
Figure 3: Most large lenders increased their balances outstanding, with the exception of Northern Rock 9
Figure 4: Mortgage rates have fallen but have failed to keep up with base rate cuts 13