Property sales boom helps mortgage brokerage double its turnover

A growing mortgage brokerage is on target to turn over more than half a million pounds by the end of the next financial year – after launching in 2019.

Barnsley-based business Avail Mortgage Brokers increased its turnover by 100% at the end of the last financial year, from £160,000 to £320,000.

The company says expanding to work with clients all over the UK is one reason for its growth – after predominantly working within the surrounding areas of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, York and Harrogate.

Avail Mortgage Brokers works with mortgage lenders to help clients find the right deal for them.

The property sales boom that the UK has experienced over the past year has also played a part in the firm’s recent success.

By the end of 2021, its team of 11 is on track to submit more than £70m worth of borrowed capital to lenders, up from £47.2m in 2020, and £18.9m in 2019.

Founder and owner Jamie Megson, who has 14 years of experience in financial services, said: “We’ve experienced significant growth in a short amount of time, and I’m really pleased with the direction the business is heading in.

“As property finance experts, we are specialists in many areas, such as adverse credit, new-build developments, and mortgages for the self-employed – there is nothing we can’t cover.

“Thanks to referrals from partners, word of mouth, returning clients and the property sales boom here in the UK, where buyers have acted quickly to make use of the stamp duty holiday, we’re on track to submit more than 500 mortgages by the end of the year. This is worth about £750,000 to us as a business.

“The number of enquiries we get has jumped by ten times compared with the same period last year. We’re now getting up to 500 per month.

“In 2019, we submitted 127 mortgages, and in 2020, it was 300 – so we are steadily increasing year-on-year. In 2022, we will begin our first round of mortgage renewals, which means we should push towards 1,000 mortgage submissions.”

In its second financial year, ending in 2020, Avail Mortgage Brokers increased its turnover by 129%, from £70,000 to £160,000, in the period ending in 2019.

The team is made up of three directors, six experienced mortgage and protection brokers, one trainee broker and administrator, and one further administrator – with 90 years of industry experience combined. There are plans to hire another four brokers and more admin staff within the next year.

Megson, 33, runs the expanding law firm Holden Smith with directors David Bancroft and James Smith, who are also solicitors.

Based predominantly in Huddersfield, Holden Smith employs 50 staff and turned over £4m in the last financial year.

Together, the sister companies have further offices in Halifax and Leeds, and will soon be opening another in Ilkley.