Smart Money People has published its H1 2024 Mortgage Lender Benchmark covering mortgage broker opinions on UK mortgage lenders for the first half of 2024.

The bi-annual independent research study, run by the financial services review site, has found that the overall average lender rating was 83.7%, which is up 0.8% on the last six months of 2023 and is the highest ever recorded.

All sectors (bank, building societies, lifetime and specialist) saw an increase in scores with building societies again the highest scored sector (85.7%) with lifetime lenders just behind at 85.5%.

This marks the 12th edition of the Mortgage Lender Benchmark which analyses the state of the mortgage industry according to brokers’ views. The latest edition comprises feedback from over 950 mortgage brokers, providing 4,490 reviews on 111 lenders.

The average Net Promoter Score (NPS) for all lenders has improved by 6.5 points on the H2 2023 figure at +38.7, again the highest in the 12 studies so far conducted. Scores ranged from -83.6 and +84.4 for the lenders in the report.

Atom Bank was named the best bank by brokers, while Principality Building Society was named the best building society lender. The best lifetime provider was Pure Retirement, the best buy-to-let lender was InterBay and Pepper Money was recognised as the top specialist lender.

Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People, said: “The increased confidence across the mortgage sector experienced so far in 2024 is very much reflected in our latest Mortgage Lender Benchmark and shows that lenders have met increased demand and volumes positively across the board.

“A significant increase in the overall NPS score from H2 2023 is also a key indicator that the general levels of broker satisfaction with lenders is good. The lifetime sector deserves special mention as their NPS is up 18.7 from the last report.”