In the final months of 2022 mortgage brokers had to work through the night because rates were rising so fast.

The market fallout from Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget meant that new deals were being released each day and disappearing within minutes. Lenders’ phone lines were specially set up to open at midnight so that brokers could jostle to grab their clients the best rates.

“It was mad and exhausting and for a long time there were a lot of very tired brokers,” said Simon Gammon from the broker Knight Frank Finance.

Almost two years later and the mortgage market looks very different. Business is slow and rates are edging down. Borrowers searching for a mortgage are largely split into three camps —