House prices may still be falling and the difficulties in the mortgage funding show no signs of going away but Rob Clifford remains upbeat.

The chief executive of Mortgageforce acknowledges that times are tough for borrowers and brokers but he is working to ensure the business is well placed to take advantage of what opportunities there are.

Mortgageforce recently recruited Kevin Duffy as strategy director and Katie Tucker as technical manager and Clifford says the business continues to invest in new staff and infrastructure, and he says the current conditions present opportunities to grow the business.

"We have spent in the region of £500,000 over the two or three years on building our infrastructure building, on the academy programme to bring in new recruits and will spend another £250,000 over the current financial year on point of sale and middle-office technology."

Clifford does not pretend that the Mortgageforce business will be unaffected he thinks the firm will continue to do well.

"It would be fatuous to suggest that Mortgageforce is going to double in size and treble its profits and completely defy market conditions but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that our business will move forward in a very positive way despite some tricky market conditions.

"For a period, we were counting the number of product withdrawals. Of late, we have been counting the number of lender cessations. Will lenders themselves stop lending or, worse still, stop trading?

"The fact that we are able to source hundreds rather than thousands of products creates pressure. Intermediaries are really having to perform to find the facility that suits their consumer.

"Clearly, the 100 per cent market has been closed for some time and 95 per cent LTV is very difficult to achieve, as is a significant non-conforming product."

This tightening of the market has meant there has been a sharp increase in the number of people unable to find funding . Clifford says the business has seen the figure go from 8-10 per cent of potential borrowers being non-mortgageable to 25 per cent. That is not to say this 20 or 25 per cent will not proceed with the remortgage or purchase at all. It just means they will have to go away and find a bigger deposit or find a different property or rein back their mortgage requirements."

But Clifford says that while lending conditions are making it harder to place business, it is having one unexpected boost for his business - the number of leads for Mortgageforce has increased substantially since lenders started tightening their lending criteria. As lenders have been unable to deal with all the enquiries they have received, Mortgageforce has directly benefited.

"Many of our corporate partners are lenders and as their lending criteria have been squeezed, this creates more client referrals for Mortgageforce under our partnership with them."

Clifford is proud of the record of growth for the business since West Bromwich Building Society bought the firm in 2005. Since then, it has more than doubled in size from 86 franchises to 200 now. He says this is something to build on and the current environment is going to offer chances to expand Mortgageforce as other brokers feel the pressure.

"It is very sad that we see some competitors, particularly mid-size brokers, struggle to cope with market conditions, but we see ourselves as a good place to house those businesses that have great capability but a lack of financial strength.

"We are a great home for mid-sized broker firms, privately owned brokerages, seeking safety in numbers."

On market conditions, Clifford is also more upbeat than many other people in the industry. He does not subscribe to the view that house prices will drop by up to 30 per cent. Instead, he says that while the prices seen in 2007 were frothy, they are not going to fall sharply from here as sellers are already pricing some future reduction into their selling price today. In fact, he says that people able to get the right deal are picking up some bargains.

"House prices were probably academically high in 2007 but the correction that is happening is not a serious discontinuity, it seems to be settling prices down to 2006 levels. So I still think there are some sensible prices out there, there are some bargains to be had.

"In most instances, sellers are compensating buyers for that anticipated price fall. They are saying, look if you bought at my full price today you might lose money on paper in the first year, so I will discount the price to incentivise you to buy it. But most of us do not buy to sell in a year's time. Most of us are going to crystallise that dip, we are going to benefit from an increase in the other side."

Clifford is also not one to subscribe to the idea that lenders were indulging in reckless lending practices.

He says that healthy competition led lenders to develop products to meet met modern demands.

"In general terms, lenders were not overly maverick. Lenders designed products which suited borrowers' lifestyles, such as flexible employment and self-employment, and many lenders' credit policies were appropriately positioned to lend to the right people in those circumstances.

"What I think went wrong is that oversupply in the UK, by 120 lenders competing, led to fierce competition, which drove prices down below a sensible price for that risk so it got too cheap for consumers who should have been paying a premium for facilities like 100 per cent mortgages."

When conditions return to normal Clifford expects the market to return more or less to the form it had before the credit crunch, only with more realistic pricing for risk.

"I am not a blind optimist. Will we see 95 per cent self-cert with adverse credit? Probably not in the next five years. But 95 per cent, 100 per cent lending, adverse credit facilities, lending for the self-employed without income evidence, I think in various forms those products will emerge."

But Clifford agrees with many commentators that it will take some time for the market to return to normal.

"I agree with the regulator, the Bank of England and most commentators. This is a problem that will still exist to a greater or lesser extent in 2010. You can write off any new prosperity or significant growth in 2009, that is for sure. Market conditions will not get completely rectified until some point in 2010 in my view.

"Even then I have got some sympathy with the opinion that the mortgage market will be the gross size that existed in 2002 or 2003.

"I do not think we are going to see the gross lending number look like 2006 or 2007 levels for very many years to come."

Clifford says the recent Government reforms, including the stamp duty holiday and financial help for borrowers in trouble, may have a small effect on consumer confidence.

"You have got to welcome any initiative that improves confidence, even if you have to caveat that by saying there needs to be far more done, far more quickly."

Instead of a small tax break, Clifford says more direct Government intervention in terms of securing funding for lenders is what is needed to get the market on the way to repairing itself.

"As a consumer, as a taxpayer, I would say why should taxpayers' money be used to shore up banks' liquidity or to enhance the capability of banks to lend more and make more profit?

"As a practitioner and a mortgage business owner, I would say we need to fix it and fix it fast and to get real in terms of expecting any organic fix to emerge. It is not going to fix itself.

"There needs to be some artificial stimulus or intervention if we are to fix it and achieve that in a sensible timescale. There will be far more unpleasant circumstances if we do not manage to achieve any sort of external intervention."