Jennifer Highton (pictured top right), director at The Mortgage Lady UK, works with clients across Merseyside, including Liverpool, Wigan, Runcorn, and the Wirral. She told Mortgage Introducer the mid-range bracket – where most first-time buyers and buy-to-let clients sit – is where the resilience is most visible.
“Demand genuinely outpaces supply, especially in the mid-range bracket,” she said. “Sellers aren’t desperate to discount. The buyers are there. Add to that the continued regeneration around the waterfront and beyond, and you have an area where confidence hasn’t evaporated the way it has elsewhere.”
How does the north/south divide change the conversation?
The contrast in market sentiment between north and south is filtering directly into broker conversations. Highton said the regional dynamic is giving Merseyside buyers a degree of confidence that clients elsewhere simply do not have.
“Down south, clients seem to be holding back, waiting to see if prices drop further,” she said. “Up here, I’m having the opposite conversation. People are more willing to act because they trust the market isn’t going to fall away beneath them.”
For remortgage clients in particular, that stability translates into a practical advantage. Properties holding their value keep loan-to-value ratios in a healthier place, which gives brokers a broader range of lenders to work with across the North West than clients in softer markets can access.