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One in two Brits would get a mortgage online or via an app

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
08/09/2021

More than half of Brits are comfortable applying for a mortgage online or via an app, research shows.

A study of 1,000 people by comparison site NerdWallet found 54 per cent would be happy getting a home loan without any human interaction or speaking to an adviser.

This figure rises to 58 per cent among 25 to 34-year-olds, and 68 per cent among 35 to 44-year-olds.

Older borrowers are also becoming more confident with digital banking. More than a quarter (27 per cent) of those aged 45 to 64, and two in five (41 per cent) of those aged 65 and over said they would be comfortable taking out a mortgage online.

According to the research, this trend is part of a wider move towards the ‘digitisation’ of the high street.

Three in five (60 per cent) Brits said they would now consider a bank with no physical branches, and 40 per cent felt prepared to have a digital-only bank as their one and only provider.

Almost a quarter (23 per cent) said they would want both a digital and traditional bank with brick-and-mortar branches.

Although more than one in four (28 per cent) people surveyed were influenced to select a bank because of convenient access to a branch, more than a third (38 per cent) claimed they selected a bank based on convenient access online.

Almost a quarter (24 per cent) wanted their bank to have an app for convenience.

Denise Ko Genovese, a senior personal finance expert at NerdWallet, said: “A large percentage of younger adults are already comfortable applying for a mortgage online, but there is still more work for lenders to do.

“If banks can use their websites and apps to make more information and advice available, while smoothing out the application process, this can go some way to closing the mortgage knowledge gap for current and future generations, so that securing a mortgage online becomes second nature.”