Mortgage application process causing stress and regret in Northern Ireland

More than half of people that have applied for a mortgage in Northern Ireland reveal the feeling they most associate with the mortgage application process is anxiety (52%).   This is creating feelings of regret, with one in five (20%) wishing they had chosen to rent for longer instead of going through the mortgage application process.  One in eight (12%) people that have applied for a mortgage would rather deal with a pest infestation such as mice or insects than go through the process and 12% would rather listen to roadworks continuously for four hours.    

The stress of lengthy and inefficient mortgage application processes is impacting working habits, lifestyles and relationships. More than one in six (17%) surveyed in Northern Ireland admit to comfort eating due to stress triggered by their mortgage applications, while a fifth (21%) confess to swearing more than usual – more than the UK average of 13%.    

Almost three in five (57%) gave up lifestyle habits while applying for a mortgage, with almost a fifth giving up on exercising (17%), self-care (12%), and one in twenty even giving up spending time with friends and family (5%).   People also confess to crying more, including at work, and drinking more alcohol due to stress triggered by the application process.      

The stress of mortgage application processes is also having an impact on workplace productivity. More than one in five (19%) mortgage applicants in Northern Ireland wished they knew how much time at work they would have been distracted by doing mortgage admin before applying and one in twenty (5%) admit to calling in sick to work due to stress triggered by their mortgage applications.  

Two in five (38%) people in Northern Ireland said a better understanding of the process beforehand would have relieved stress during the mortgage application process, as well as fewer delays in the process (24%) and less paperwork (40%). 14% also called for better online tools.  Financial education has a role to play in reducing stress, with Ohpen calling for better transparency of the process, especially for younger and first-time buyers.

More than nine in ten (93%) of those in Northern Ireland that have applied for a mortgage believe mortgages and financial education should be on the secondary school curriculum, with many admitting they didn’t understand basic mortgage terms before the application process.       

Jerry Mulle, UK Managing Director at Ohpen, says: “These findings are a damning indictment of the inefficient mortgage application processes delivered by banks’ archaic legacy systems. Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK apply for a mortgage every year, and so the total impact on mental health and wellbeing, consumer spending and productivity is significant.

"The generational gap in the impact of mortgage applications on wellbeing and consumer spending makes it clear that banks’ processes have not modernised – what was cutting edge 40 years ago is no longer fit for purpose.     

“We need to see a coordinated effort to make the process more transparent and inclusive from the outset, and speed up the application process by taking complex legacy technology out of the equation and enabling better real-time data sharing between all the stakeholders involved in the home-buying journey.”