I was reading a piece of market commentary last week about what’s defined the market in 2026. The word that kept coming up was reactive. Rate volatility. Global uncertainty. A market where conditions change faster than most firms can plan around.
One adviser put it plainly. “The market volatility and pace of change have left brokers in a vulnerable and reactive position.”
I’d go further than that.
Reactive isn’t just a position. For most small mortgage firms it’s become a culture. And cultures are very hard to change when the market keeps giving you a reason not to.
Rates spike – you react. Lenders reprice – you react. A client panics – you react. A competitor undercuts you – you react. The week disappears. Nothing got built. The same thing happens next week.
Meanwhile the business that was supposed to grow just gets louder and busier without actually moving forward.
UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS
Here’s the honest question. If someone looked at how you spent your time this week – not what you intended to do, what you actually did – how much of it was reacting to things that happened to you versus working on things you chose to build?
For most firm owners the answer is uncomfortable.
The market being volatile isn’t new. It’s been volatile for three years. Rates went up 14 times. They came back down. The Iran conflict pushed Swap rates higher again. Lenders reprice two, three times in a week sometimes.
A quarter of the UK public expect rates to rise. A quarter expect them to fall. A quarter expect them to stay the same. A quarter have no idea. That’s the market. It isn’t going to settle down and hand you a clean run.
So, the firms that are genuinely growing aren’t the ones waiting for conditions to stabilise before they sort their business out.
They’ve accepted the volatility as the permanent backdrop and built something that works within it.
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
What does that look like in practice?
It looks like knowing your numbers every single week. Not roughly. Leads in; first appointments; AIPs issued; cases banked and pipeline value.
If you don’t know those numbers without having to think about it, you’re flying blind. And flying blind in a reactive market means every lender reprice or client panic feels like a crisis rather than just noise.
It looks like a retention process that runs regardless of what rates do. Your clients coming off fixes this year don’t care about swap rates. They care whether someone they trust called them before their lender did. If your process depends on you remembering to call them rather than a system that ensures it happens, you’re leaving that to chance.
It looks like a lead follow-up process that treats the interested-not-ready as an asset rather than a waste of time.
CONSISTENT ADVICE
Affordability has remained a major part of the conversation in 2026. Clients are increasingly asking what they can realistically afford over the long term.
That client who wasn’t ready three months ago might be ready now. If you dropped them after two chases, you’ll pay to acquire them again.
And it looks like an advice process that works consistently regardless of which adviser is in the room. Because in a volatile market, the clients who come back are the ones who got a great experience – not a great rate. Rates change. Experiences stick.
One broker described 2026 as requiring clients to “commit to rates quicker than before and act decisively.” That’s true for clients. It’s equally true for firm owners.
The owners who use the volatility as an excuse to stay reactive will still be reactive when conditions eventually improve.
The ones who treat it as a reason to finally build the infrastructure they’ve been putting off will come out of this period with something worth owning.
Reactive got you through last year. It won’t get you through the next three.
