Broker recruitment strategy sees approvals surge

According to recent data from Mortgage Choice, home loan approvals for the first quarter of the 2014/2015 financial year were 12.5 per cent higher than the corresponding period the year before.

Mortgage Choice chief executive officer Michael Russell said the notable spike in home loan approvals can be in part attributed to the company’s recent increase in loan writer numbers.

“At the end of September last year, we had 510 loan writers operating across the nation,” Mr Russell said.

“Today, thanks to our very successful Plus One Initiative, we have 556 loan writers on board, and that number is growing,” he said.

“I expect our home loan approval numbers to grow further as our new loan writers find their feet and really start to hit their strides.”

The ‘Plus One’ initiative, which was officially launched in January and ran until the end of June, offered franchisees a monetary incentive to bring another loan writer on board.

“Our Plus One initiative was incredibly successful for us as a business and I believe it will help us to garnish greater market share over the coming year,” Mr Russell said.

“While we are only one quarter into the new financial year, we are seeing solid growth in both gross profit and recruitment, not only in our core mortgage broking business, but our financial planning business as well,” he said.

“Moving forward, we expect to achieve another year of good growth in cash profits for the group.”