"We know that businesses across all industries are anticipating some testing times as a result of the economic environment so it’s encouraging to see that brokers remain optimistic"
Almost four in 10 (38%) mortgage intermediary firms are expanding as confidence in the sector defies broader economic challenges, Paragon Bank research has revealed.
Paragon's survey found only 3% are reducing in size, with 30% taking on additional experienced advisers and 19% hiring trainees. Over one in five firms (22%) will boost their headcount by recruiting paraplanners to assist with paperwork and other tasks to help free-up adviser capacity.
Over half of respondents (51%) said that hiring experienced advisers is either fairly or very difficult, a figure that falls to just over one third (34%) when recruiting trainee advisers. To overcome this challenge, 23% of firms plan to upskill existing employees in future, while just over one third (34%) have already done so.
In addition to workforce enhancements, around one in five firms plan to bolster their activity through investment in additional technology (25%) or with new or additional marketing (24%).
This expansion reflects optimism amongst brokers that defies broader economic challenges, with more than eight in 10 (85%) stating that they are either ‘very confident’ or ‘fairly confident’ about the future of their company, while two thirds (66%) feel this way about the outlook for the intermediary sector of the mortgage industry.
Moray Hulme, director for mortgage sales at Paragon Bank, said: “It’s fantastic to see that intermediary firms are increasing their capacity by either recruiting or upskilling their existing employees in addition to investing in their marketing and technology.
“We know that businesses across all industries are anticipating some testing times as a result of the economic environment so it’s encouraging to see that brokers remain optimistic, so much so that they are actively investing in their growth. I think that this confidence lies in the strong levels of mortgage lending that we have experienced which is, in turn, driven by continued tenant demand and highlights the resilience of the property sector.”
