Mortgage wait times are soaring – putting homebuyers at risk of losing their dream property. Before the pandemic started, it took two weeks to get a mortgage offer. Now it can take six weeks. Home working by bank staff has been blamed for causing a massive backlog of mortgage applications that is hammering first-time buyers and delaying house purchases by up to a month. Sources said banks are failing to cope with a sharp rise in applications because so many staff are working from their kitchen tables. But now a report which provides brokers with a single view of lenders’ service levels has been launched by Mortgage Brain. The new lender service report collates details of the typical length of time various processes take at multiple lenders to help advisers manage expectations when supporting clients. It comes as lenders deal with record volumes of applications driven by increased activity in the housing market which is having an impact on their response times to applications. Mortgage Brain’s report aggregates information made available directly on lender’s websites to help keep advisers updated. It covers aspects such as average wait times to speak to different departments and typical application processing times. The information is displayed within the Covid-19 support hub on Mortgage Brain’s Criteria Hub website and it is being updated every working day, automatically. It is apparent through conversations with intermediaries and lenders that transparency with regards to expected service levels is vitally important to all parties. The report, it is hoped, will offer brokers a single view of lenders’ service levels and therefore save them time visiting multiple websites. However, Mortgage Brain said it would also allow all parties to be absolutely transparent when making recommendations.