The increase also represents a 42% improvement on the figures it posted in 2010 and is directly attributable to the expansion of its AR form roster in 2012. The number of AR firms within Stonebridge Group grew by 16 and currently stands at 83 organisations.
With further recruitment and development programmes earmarked for the coming 12 months, the network is confident of witnessing a further 25% rise in mortgage activity in 2013.
Given productivity is increasing at a greater rate than recruitment and with many new firms not yet having had the chance to contribute to this increase, Stonebridge say there is nothing to suggest it won’t be able to continue to buck the trend of underperforming networks in the months ahead.
Richard Adams, Managing Director of Stonebridge Group, commented:
“Towards the end of 2012 it felt like networks were making the headlines for all the wrong reasons what with some of our competitors hiking fees and shedding members, but our performance over the last 12 months shows that success is still attainable with the right model and strategy. We are proud that we have posted such strong figures at a time when not only are our rivals finding the going tough, but during a period when mortgage activity has been relatively flat broadly speaking.
“We intend to build on these achievements in the coming year and the tweaks we have already made to our business such as the enhancement of our sales support team should enable us to do this. There are other encouraging signs that banks may begin to regain their lending appetites in 2013 and this would certainly help us achieve our objectives. Most market commentators seem to have predicted that UK mortgage activity will be up by around £10bn over the coming year and there is every reason to believe that networks and intermediaries can account for a fair proportion of that.”
