A shortage of surveyors is continuing to put pressure on the secured loan sector and residential mortgage market, despite on-going efforts by the industry to train and recruit more talent, Blemain Group has claimed.

The Group highlighted a trend in 2013 of rapidly worsening surveyor availability, and called on the property industry to come together to help solve the problem. While the UK property market has been witnessing a resurgence of growth over the past six months a lack of trained surveyors is still slowing the loan approval process in many areas, it says.

Tracey Bailey, head of residential underwriting at Blemain Group, said: “The industry has taken a number of steps to address the issue of a shortage of surveyors, including streamlining the education process to allow the faster training of more specialised, niche practitioners, as well as placing a greater emphasis on promoting surveyor careers to university students directly.

“However, in some – mainly rural – areas a complete absence of coverage has held up some property deals and has risked some transactions collapsing entirely. These instances place a greater strain on the whole chain, from lenders to brokers and customers.

“For this reason it’s vital for lenders like Blemain Group to contribute to engagement and education activities directly to help people realise how the situation is impacting the industry as a whole. Our UK-wide reach gives us a good overview of the market, in addition to which we’ve recently been touring the country to meet with our brokers to canvass their concerns and needs for lending products, and to find out where issues are arising in the deal process.”

“Feedback indicates that the residential property sector remains a less attractive career choice than commercial property, leading many trainee surveyors to shun it in favour of more lucrative alternatives. While the obvious solution would be boosting salaries to compensate, it is important to note that this cost would in turn be passed along the chain, so professionals across the industry must continue to work together to look at ways of improving the whole system without risking damage to recent growth.”