Mortgage advisers in estate agency branches are treading water, it has been reported.
The Mortgage Advice Bureau, reporting on its performance in the first half of this year, said that trading for its estate agency-based Appointed Representatives “continues to be muted”.
It said that they have put growth plans on hold and are delaying filling vacancies.
However, MAB said that it expects growth in revenue per adviser to “return to normal levels” next year.
Its assumption is based on “no noticeable improvement in the housing market”, but on the “many focused initiatives that MAB has in place”.
It says that when overall consumer confidence returns, it expects some pent-up demand in the housing market to be released, and its estate agency-focused representatives to respond in terms of delivering growth.
Despite the slowdown in business for estate agency-based mortgage advisers, MAB has reported revenue up 5% to £60.9m in the first half of this year, with profits before tax up 3% to £7.2m.
This was despite underlying revenue per adviser down 4%.
After the reporting period, MAB acquired brokers First Mortgage for £20.6m, paying £16.5m as the initial consideration.
MAB has 1,433 advisers in total, including those working out of estate agencies.
Comments (2)
Brodniki has done very very well – a smart guy.
Estate Agency staff are under the cosh and will be fairly downbeat at the moment – hitting them with the mortgage stick will only add to their pain.
Agreed re: Brodnicki. Smart bloke who’s done well to diversify the business. As someone who used to work in corporate EA as a broker and regional manager, the quicker that the CWD’s and Connells of this world understand that agents are struggling to list houses as their first concern, and look elsewhere for lead generation, the better.
My firm has a couple of agency introducers that give us a little, but the rest comes from our own marketing and doesn’t rely on an office or chain of agents to produce the leads. Therefore, if the branch struggles, we don’t. As a side effect, none of the agents we work with feel brow beaten as you’ve referred to, and are left to get on with the job. What’s more, if the agents are concentrated more on listing and selling houses, we get more leads from the agent. Simples!
MAB have definitely moved towards moving away from the estate agency AR world. That is why their numbers are up despite the disappointing agency numbers.