How smarter UX can shape the future of digital mortgage journeys

In our recent survey of borrowers & brokers, we set out to explore what influences today’s mortgage journey. With the average time to buy and sell a home in the UK at around 6 months, we uncovered key insights into this often lengthy process and identified opportunities for improvement.

A human touch still matters

While digital technology has brought efficiency and speed to many areas of banking, our survey showed that 42% of borrowers still value speaking directly to lenders for mortgage inquiries. This highlights the need to continue developing user-friendly digital services while maintaining personal interactions. Striking a balance between intuitive digital tools and live conversations can enhance the overall customer experience.  

What are the beneficial technologies?

The top three digital features borrowers found most helpful were:

• Online applications (29%)
• Digital document signing (23%)
• Interactive calculators (22%)

However, 19% of homeowners found no benefit in any of the tech features currently offered by lenders. This signals a need for lenders to refine their digital tools and better understand what this segment of borrowers is missing. Finding the right balance between innovation and user needs will be key to improving these experiences.  

What brokers are telling us

Our findings from brokers revealed that while 90% saw an improvement in their workloads through online portals, 46% experienced technical issues and glitches. Features that came out as most beneficial were real time application tracking (53%) and automated document processing (48%).  

On the downside, 75% reported spending more time on admin tasks since their lenders introduced new technologies. This shows that while digital solutions help in some areas, they can also create additional burdens. Understanding the user experience from both borrowers and brokers will be critical to further refining mortgage technologies.  

Refinement: The key to getting smart with technology

Although significant progress has been made in digital mortgage solutions, our findings suggest that the focus should be on refining existing tools rather than constantly developing new ones. Two key areas for improvement stand out:

1. Enhancing support for areas like remortgaging, where digital solutions are still lacking.
2. Continuously gathering feedback to improve user experiences and address any pain points

Finally, it’s important to remember the value of human interaction. Investing in better digital tools doesn’t mean losing the personal touch—it means using technology to support it.  

Download the full report

To explore the full findings of our report and learn how digital mortgage journeys can be improved, download the full Homeownership in the Digital Age report on our website.