Shawbrook has reported that brokers remain optimistic about their businesses despite political uncertainty.

The annual Shawbrook Broker Barometer found that despite commercial mortgage brokers surveyed citing Brexit as one of the biggest issues likely to impact their clients in 2019, respondents remained upbeat about the year ahead,

69% stated that they feel confident about the lending environment in the New Year, while 56% of brokers said they feel confident about business growth in 2019.

Meanwhile, 26% of respondents have seen no change in business volumes in 2018, despite ongoing political uncertainty and 23% have cited a healthy 10%+ increase in business volumes in 2018, compared with 2017.

The top three challenges that the commercial mortgage brokers surveyed expect their businesses to face in 2019 are the impact of Brexit (62%), valuation issues (55%) and Mortgage Interest Tax Relief (39%).

Emma Cox, ‎sales director for commercial mortgages at Shawbrook, said: “Whilst Brexit still seems to be driving some uncertainty amongst the broker community, it’s encouraging to see from our research there is still confidence in the market looking at the year ahead.

“As outlined in Shawbrook’s latest BTL Report, professionalisation of the industry seems to be underpinning activity and continues to present a great deal of opportunity. We see professional investors and landlords working closely with brokers to build a sustainable business plan designed to withstand uncertainty, and in our view the buy-to-let space remains fundamentally robust.”