As we move further into 2026, the UK housing market remains constrained by limited supply and ongoing affordability pressures, creating a more complex environment. With greater emphasis on detailed guidance, client understanding, and regulatory expectations, growing a business through mortgage activity alone is becoming increasingly challenging. Against this backdrop, attention is turning towards more sustainable, long-term strategies. In the following article, Makayla Everitt, Head of Simplybiz Mortgages, shares her perspective on how firms can adapt and succeed in today’s evolving market.
As we progress further into 2026, I’m continuing to see the purchase market constrained by limited housing supply, while affordability pressures remain one of the biggest barriers for many would‑be buyers. This combination is making it increasingly difficult for advisers to drive new purchase business, leading to a continued reliance on remortgages and product transfers across the UK.
What’s become increasingly clear is that advisers now need a far deeper level of specialist knowledge than ever. The growing complexity of client circumstances, paired with rapid and frequent product changes, means that technology‑supported fact‑finding, robust CRM systems, and more advanced sourcing tools are no longer just helpful; they’re critical to delivering the right advice.
Across our community, advisers are spending significantly more time navigating intricate affordability challenges, working through layered suitability considerations, and providing detailed support to ensure clients achieve the right outcomes.
At the same time, confidence among many clients remains fragile. Decision‑making often takes longer, and advisers have to invest more energy into reassurance, clearer explanations, and education‑led communication. Client understanding has become central to client conversion – turning an enquiry into a full mortgage application now relies heavily on the quality of the engagement and the ability to guide clients through uncertainty. Above all, clients need to feel informed, empowered, and supported from start to finish.
Alongside this, advisers are under constant pressure to adapt to policy changes, updated lender processes, retrain teams, and conduct enhanced scrutiny around affordability and product suitability.
This relentless pace requires time – time that inevitably impacts advisers’ capacity to increase revenue or scale their business.
So, the question I’m increasingly focused on is this: what are the sustainable solutions for growing a successful mortgage business in 2026, whilst still giving every client the time, clarity, and care they need?
The solution remains the same for me as it has been for many years – general insurance – I predict firms who do not embrace GI throughout will not fulfil their true business potential compared to those who do.
Building the largest client bank you can will offer your firm the best protection and opportunity to succeed in the future. Mortgage principals and advisers who understand this are building stronger, more resilient and more profitable firms.
The challenge our industry faces is there are nowhere near enough intermediaries doing this, and it increasingly worries me as this will directly impact the success of their business. Some firms even resort to buying leads, which is a cost to the business and tends to result in low conversion. However, more importantly, clients are suffering because they are not benefiting from their advisers’ advice on GI.
A core principle of Consumer Duty is to act to deliver good consumer outcomes. Mortgage advisers need to demonstrate that they have acted in the best interests of the customer across the whole advice journey, including general insurance. Firms and advisers with GI permissions who choose not to discuss it with clients could find it difficult to evidence good consumer outcomes.
General insurance creates sustainable, organic growth for mortgage firms
Most clients only need a mortgage occasionally, but they need insurance every year, often across multiple products. They also know far more people who need insurance than people actively buying homes.
This makes general insurance (GI):
- A powerful referral engine
- A predictable revenue stabiliser
- A natural source of ongoing client engagement
- One of the most underused growth strategies in the advice industry
- More opportunities
- Greater brand visibility in local communities
GI isn’t just “another product”, it is an organic, recurring lead‑generation ecosystem.
You don’t need to buy leads when GI is used properly. There’s a common belief in the mortgage world that you must buy leads to maintain a steady pipeline. In reality, GI is one of the strongest (and most overlooked) sources of predictable, organic lead flow – not just for insurance, but across your entire advice proposition.
Every GI conversation has downstream potential:
- A renter today may buy their first home in 2–3 years.
- A travel insurance enquiry might reveal a protection need or uncover a referral.
- A landlord’s GI policy opens the door to remortgages, BTL purchases or bridging finance.
- High‑net‑worth home insurance may highlight investment or holiday‑home finance opportunities.
- A business cyber‑insurance client could become a long‑term commercial referral source.
GI strengthens every branch of your business.
Predictable volume = controlled business growth
When I work with mortgage firms, predictable volume is always the first thing I review.
GI provides exactly that:
- A diversification safety net
- Frequent client engagement
- Consistent brand presence between mortgage cycles
- A reliable source of referrals
Firms that integrate GI into their core proposition consistently outperform those that don’t. They grow naturally, protect income during market slowdowns, and expand without heavy marketing spend. Many GI providers can support advisers with marketing literature, which is really beneficial, but many firms don’t know this is available to them.
For many advisers, GI is still an afterthought, but when GI moves from ‘add‑on’ to strategic focus, it becomes the engine that powers brand recognition, recurring revenue and predictable growth. It becomes the thread that connects the whole financial conversation.
GI isn’t just a product, it’s a business growth engine.
Build it into the core of your client journey and you’ll:
- create consistent, reliable revenue
- increase client loyalty
- reduce dependence on purchased leads
- unlock more referrals
- generate additional mortgage and protection opportunities
- build a more secure, adaptable business model
Your mortgage club should be equipping you with the specialist training, referral support, and guidance you need to create a high‑performing, future‑ready firm.
So, why is general insurance still seen as the ‘poor relation’ in our industry when it delivers everything needed for long‑term success? The only real shift required is talking about it earlier – I continue to be baffled that GI isn’t recognised as the foundation income stream for every mortgage firm in the UK
Simply put: by leveraging GI successfully, your business becomes self-fulfilling, rather than dependent solely upon the strength and buoyancy of the mortgage market.
Makayla Everitt is Head of Simplybiz Mortgages
