On 1 December 2025, mortgage brokers on both sides of the Atlantic woke up to a wave of news that will shape their business plans for 2026.
In the UK, Smart Money People’s latest H2 2025 Mortgage Lender Benchmark shows broker satisfaction with lenders at its highest level since 2020, with Halifax again taking the crown for best overall broker experience.
At the same time, in the US, RCN Capital used a feature in Mortgage Professional America to publish a practical “broker blueprint” for closing more deals with investor clients in 2026 — focusing on in‑person connections, brand building and better use of technology. Mortgage Professional
Taken together, the data and the blueprint sketch out a clear message: broker–lender relationships are improving, product choice is widening, and those brokers who modernise their approach to investor clients are well placed to grow in 2026.
Broker satisfaction hits a post‑2020 high
Smart Money People — the UK’s largest financial services review platform — has released the fifteenth edition of its bi‑annual Mortgage Lender Benchmark, covering broker views for the second half of 2025.
Key findings from the H2 2025 report include:
- Overall broker satisfaction: 4.25 out of 5, the highest level since 2020.
- All‑lender Broker Experience Index: up 0.4 points to 71.0.
- Segment scores (Broker Experience Index):
- Mainstream lenders: 72.4
- Buy‑to‑let specialists: 72.1
- Building societies: 71.2
- Coverage: feedback from 1,040 brokers across 537 firms, rating 120 lenders that together represent around 98% of UK gross mortgage lending.
- Net Promoter Score (all lenders): +41.3, up 0.4 points from the first half of 2025.
The Broker Experience Index blends multiple service and satisfaction metrics — including speed, quality of support, digital tools and ease of doing business — into a single score that reflects the end‑to‑end broker journey with each lender.
With scores edging up across the board, the data confirms what many advisers have felt anecdotally through 2025: service levels from lenders have generally improved, even as markets wrestle with rate volatility, regulatory noise and a shifting tax landscape.
Brokers’ favourite lenders in late 2025
Across the survey, Halifax emerges as brokers’ clear front‑runner. In H2 2025 the lender is rated:
- Best mainstream lender
- Best overall broker experience
Other category winners in the latest benchmark include:
- Best building society lender: Coventry Building Society
- Best later life lender: Pure Retirement
- Best specialist lender: Pepper Money
- Best buy‑to‑let specialist: BM Solutions
- Best bridging/commercial lender: Allica Bank
- Best digital‑first lender: Atom Bank
Many of these firms — Pepper Money, BM Solutions and Allica Bank among them — are retaining top positions they held earlier in 2025, underlining that consistency of service is a major differentiator in a highly competitive market.
Smart Money People’s head of data and analytics, Jake Sandford, has highlighted that mainstream lenders like Halifax attract a large share of broker‑written business, so the experience they deliver to intermediaries is strategically critical — and a key area of investment.
Lenders loosen criteria as competition intensifies
The positive sentiment in the benchmark is reinforced by the day’s other lender news.
On the same date, Shawbrook Retail Mortgages announced that it is increasing its maximum loan‑to‑income (LTI) ratio from 4.5x to 5.5x across The Mortgage Lender (TML) and Bluestones residential ranges.
According to Shawbrook, the move is designed to give greater borrowing power to:
- Self‑employed applicants
- Borrowers with non‑standard or multiple income sources
- Customers with impaired credit who can nevertheless demonstrate affordability
The lender stresses that the higher LTI cap comes with an ongoing commitment to responsible, sustainable underwriting — but it clearly signals growing lender confidence and a willingness to adapt criteria in a market where house prices in many regions continue to outpace incomes.
Meanwhile, other coverage referenced alongside the Smart Money People story points to a complex backdrop for 2026 planning: home sales in October reportedly rose to around 98,450, up 2%, even as commercial deals slumped, and separate analysis warns that new tax measures for landlords could filter through into higher rents.
For brokers, the message is nuanced: the residential market is showing resilience, but investor and landlord clients will be watching criteria, taxation and yields more closely than ever.
A 2026 blueprint: how brokers can win more investor clients
Against this backdrop, RCN Capital’s feature in Mortgage Professional America sets out a practical three‑part “broker blueprint” for closing more deals with investor clients in 2026. Mortgage Professional
The guidance argues that while the formula for success looks simple on paper, execution is what separates average brokers from those who become indispensable partners to investors.
1. Re‑prioritise in‑person investor connections
With so much broker marketing now happening on social media, it is easy to forget how powerful face‑to‑face interactions can be. The blueprint urges brokers to:
- Show up at local REIAs (Real Estate Investor Associations): establish a regular presence so investors see you as the go‑to local financing resource.
- Work the national trade‑show circuit: these events bring together investors, brokers and specialist lenders from across the country, creating opportunities to build a diversified investor client base.
- Lead with value, not a hard sell: conversations should highlight how you can reduce workload, structure deals and solve problems — rather than simply pitching products.
In a world where many interactions are digital and fleeting, a handful of memorable in‑person meetings can anchor long‑term relationships and generate repeat business.
2. Turn your broker brand into an investor magnet
RCN Capital’s piece also makes the case that, for investors, a broker’s brand is shorthand for their expertise and focus. It encourages brokers to clearly define and communicate:
- Which loan types they specialise in (e.g. fix‑and‑flip, DSCR, bridge, multi‑family).
- Which geographies they know best.
- How many financing options and lender relationships they bring to the table.
The article points to LinkedIn and Instagram as the two highest‑impact platforms for investor‑facing brokers. Practical content ideas include:
- Short explainer videos on new legislation or regulatory changes affecting investors in a given region.
- Case‑study posts walking through a recent smooth closing and what made it work.
- Before‑and‑after property snippets for flips or major renovations, tied back to the finance structure.
Crucially, brokers are urged to engage with investor comments and messages so that there is a clearly visible human being behind the online brand.
3. Use CRM and deal‑sourcing tech to add real value
As brokers grow their investor books, staying organised becomes non‑negotiable. RCN’s blueprint frames CRM systems as the backbone of a scalable broker–investor operation.
A good CRM lets brokers:
- Track every deal and interaction
- Record client preferences and “pain points” from previous transactions
- Set reminders for follow‑ups, renewals and key dates
The next level is using investment property software alongside the CRM to proactively find deals that match each investor’s pattern.
For example, if a client has completed three successful fix‑and‑flips in a specific city and price band, a broker who can surface similar on‑market or off‑market opportunities — and present finance options at the same time — becomes far harder to replace.
The article’s central promise is that brokers who combine this kind of proactive deal‑sourcing with personalised service can become “irreplaceable” to their investor clients over time. Mortgage Professional
What this all means for brokers planning 2026
Put the day’s announcements together and a clear 2026 playbook emerges.
1. Align your lender panel with broker‑rated leaders
Smart Money People’s benchmark offers brokers a data‑driven way to sanity‑check their lender mix:
- Mainstream: Halifax topping both mainstream and overall broker experience categories makes it an obvious anchor relationship for many advisers.
- Building societies: Coventry Building Society’s performance confirms that mutuals remain highly valued broker partners.
- Specialist and later‑life: Pepper Money, Pure Retirement, BM Solutions and Allica Bank illustrate where brokers are finding reliable niche solutions for specialist, buy‑to‑let and commercial clients.
- Digital‑first: Atom Bank’s recognition points to the growing role of tech‑led lenders in brokers’ day‑to‑day case placement.
Reviewing which of these lenders you actually place business with — and why — can help ensure your 2026 panel lines up with where brokers are actually seeing the best experience.
2. Match investor strategies to lender strengths
Investor and landlord clients will be navigating:
- Evolving tax rules that may put upward pressure on rents
- A residential market where transaction volumes remain healthy but commercial activity is more subdued
- Criteria changes like Shawbrook’s higher LTI caps for complex‑income borrowers
Brokers who can map investor strategies to the lenders that have been independently rated for strong broker experience — whether that is a mainstream giant like Halifax or a nimble specialist lender — will be better placed to structure sustainable deals through 2026.
3. Turn “record satisfaction” into deeper relationships
A higher industry‑wide satisfaction score is not the finish line; it is the starting gun. Armed with improved service levels and a richer product set, brokers can now:
- Set clearer service expectations with lenders, backed by benchmark data.
- Demand better integration between lender systems and their own CRMs and sourcing platforms.
- Lean into the blueprint’s advice to invest in networking, branding and tech — so that better lender service translates into more completed loans, rather than just a smoother status quo.
A pivotal moment for broker–lender–investor relationships
The combination of Smart Money People’s H2 2025 data, new lender criteria announcements and RCN Capital’s 2026 investor blueprint marks 1 December 2025 as a genuinely pivotal moment for intermediaries.
Brokers are operating in a market where:
- Lender experience scores are at multi‑year highs
- Competition between mainstream, mutual and specialist lenders is intense
- Investor and landlord clients face both fresh opportunities and new tax‑driven risks
- Practical roadmaps now exist to help advisers deepen investor relationships and scale their businesses
Those who act on this information — by tightening lender panels, embracing tech, showing up more consistently in investor communities and positioning themselves as long‑term partners rather than product pickers — are likely to be the ones closing the most investor deals in 2026.
