Since its official launch at the end of 2014, Fleet Mortgages has expanded its intermediary distribution coverage and has seen growing levels of activity and interest in its proposition and products. Lending volumes have increased month-on-month with pipeline business increasing 36% from the end of March to the end of April.
In order to deal with the increase in business, Fleet Mortgages has recruited a number of new employees, particularly in its underwriting team. There has been a 30% growth in staff numbers in the operations team since the start of the year, with the anticipation this will grow to 50% by the end of 2015.
To accommodate the growth in employee numbers and the expansion plans for the business, Fleet Mortgages will be moving to new permanent headquarters in Fleet during August.
Last month Fleet Mortgages revealed a positive first full quarter of business with strong volumes and considerable intermediary support. In the first three months of 2015 Fleet Mortgages had £145 million worth of buy-to-let business put through its system by intermediaries, with an average loan size across all types of products of £245k.
Fleet Mortgages’ products are tailored towards experienced landlords and property investors, and cover mainstream buy-to-let residential mortgages as well as finance for those investing through limited company vehicles and houses in multiple occupation.
Bob Young, Chief Executive Officer of Fleet Mortgages, commented:
“Our development and growth continues to exceed our expectations and therefore we have accelerated our expansion plans which will allow us to meet the growing level of interest in our products and proposition. We have already recruited a number of new employees to the Operations team and we will be adding further experienced personnel to the business shortly. It also means we will be moving the operation to new headquarters within Fleet in August which will give us the necessary space in order to grow the team.
“It’s fantastic that we are able to grow the business in order to deal with this level of activity but particularly in order to ensure our service standards remain high. We continue to develop new relationships with additional intermediary distributors and, as we move towards covering the whole of the sector, it is vital we put in place the necessary resources and support structure in order to continue to offer a great service to our intermediary partners.”
