Tony Capon, head of intermediary sales at Salt, believed the benefits that AVMs can offer in terms of service, especially in the remortgage market, will cause distributors to re-evaluate the composition of their panels.
This will see lending panels made up solely of financial firms who can provide AVMs on the majority of cases.
Capon said: “Looking to the future, I can see a situation where lenders will want to give instant offers based on AVMs and this will be a huge enhancement in terms of service. Larger mortgage distributors will see this and look at their panels and only include those with AVMs.”
Both edeus and GMAC-RFC are widely expected to have AVMs in place by the end of this year, with other lenders also expected to join them next year.
While lenders will not apply AVMs on all mortgage cases, such as high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage loans, and unusual properties, their introduction will be a huge occasion for the market.
Capon admits Salt is looking at the technology but has no immediate plans to bring it in.
“We will be looking at AVMs and considering if they are appropriate. We will watch the market and what our competitors are doing and while we have made no commitments, we will watch with interest to see how it goes.”
However, Tony Corrigan, managing director at Classic Network Solutions, does not believe this will be the case for mortgage networks.
“From a ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ perspective, you have to offer the best possible deal. So by excluding mortgage lenders not offering AVMs, you are not treating your customers fairly. However, it will have a dramatic effect on the packaging market as much of the work they do will be done by the AVM.”
