Rising loan-to-income lending makes client education the defining responsibility for UK mortgage brokers
Long mortgage terms are no longer an edge case in the UK. New data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Bank of England shows 46% of gross mortgage advances in Q2 2026 went to borrowers with high loan-to-income ratios. That is up from 41.4% a year earlier. For mortgage brokers, that figure makes client education, not just rate selection, the central professional obligation.
The data arrives at a moment when extending mortgage terms is becoming routine. Borrowers are accepting 30- and 40-year commitments to reduce monthly payments to manageable levels. What gets less attention is what those extended commitments mean for borrowers’ finances at 60, 70, or beyond.
Jinesh Vohra, CEO and founder of Sprive, raised that concern in a recent episode of Twenty7tec’s ELEVATE Podcast Series. Sprive is a mortgage overpayment platform that secured $10 million (£7.7 million) in Series A funding in September 2026. The company is built around the idea that the mortgage conversation should not end at completion.
“I think it’s very important that people understand the cost of debt, because it’s not just about meeting the monthly payments,” Vohra said. “You have to be able to do that over the entire lifetime of the mortgage.”
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What does the remortgage data tell us?
Twenty7tec’s August 2026 Mortgage Market Snapshot recorded 616,150 residential remortgage searches. That represented an 11% increase compared with August 2025. The figures point to a significant volume of borrowers re-engaging with their mortgage — and to the opportunity facing advisers at that moment.
Consumer Duty has sharpened that responsibility considerably. Under the FCA’s framework, brokers must consider client outcomes across the life of the product, not just at the point of sale. Securing a competitive rate is no longer sufficient on its own.
Vohra questioned whether the industry has done enough to hold that broader conversation. The mortgage sector, he argued, is structured around transactions rather than relationships. Most contact with a client happens once every two to five years, typically at remortgage.
“If you are interacting with that customer every two to five years, when they’re effectively looking to refinance, how strong is that relationship?” he said.
Why is client education the broker’s most important long-term borrowing tool?
Data on the rise in extended mortgage terms among borrowers aged 36 and over shows the fastest-growing segment is borrowers taking 35-year-plus terms who are already in their mid-thirties. For those borrowers, changes in employment, health, or personal circumstances carry serious financial risk. That risk grows as the remaining term lengthens.
According to Yorkshire Building Society data cited by Sprive, 56% of prospective first-time buyers believe getting accepted for a mortgage is difficult. That pressure pushes borrowers toward whatever terms make the numbers work today. Many have limited visibility of what those terms look like at retirement.
Vohra argued that advisers are in a unique position to reframe that picture. Helping clients model their borrowing across its full term — not just the first fix — is a service most are not currently receiving. It is also one that sits within the spirit of Consumer Duty.
Suitability and long-term outcomes are now the dominant framework for product design, as Consumer Duty continues to reshape the market in 2026. Brokers who build client engagement around that framework are in a good position to retain clients. They can also back up the quality of their advice under regulatory scrutiny.
For mortgage brokers, that gap is both a challenge and an opening. The advisers who move beyond the transaction — and hold the longer client education conversation — will be the ones borrowers return to.
