Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) recorded an 82% annual increase in mortgage business last month, with £554.7m worth of applications making July 2013 the busiest since the company was established in 2000.
Since January the total value of mortgage applications at MAB has soared by 51% compared to the equivalent period in 2012. Applications totalling £3.32bn were submitted in the first seven months of 2013, compared with £2.21bn last year.
This growth puts MAB on track to surpass its 2012 total business by the end of August – with four months of the year still remaining.
MAB has seen a visible increase in the pace of growth since the Help to Buy scheme launched in April. In the first three months of 2013, the total value of its mortgage applications was up by 26% year-on-year; in the four months after, it shot up by 69% compared to 2012.
In contrast, the mortgage market as a whole has experienced a 7% year-on-year rise in total gross lending for 2013 to date, yet industry data shows brokers are benefitting from an increasing share of business across the market.
Peter Brodnicki, chief executive of Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: “The newfound momentum in the mortgage arena is visibly attracting more borrowers, helped by government initiatives including the Funding for Lending Scheme and Help to Buy. Both purchase and remortgage activity have dramatically improved and the latest residential market survey from RICS shows consumer confidence continues to rise. Consumers are also increasingly turning to brokers to help navigate the range of options open to them.
“MAB has invested significantly in its broker and network propositions over the last five years. As a result we have attracted many of the UK’s leading advisers and appointed representative (AR) firms, especially over the last 18 months which has seen a record rate of growth. That combined with the improving economic landscape and unprecedented demand has helped us to deliver these record business volumes. 2013 looks set to be a landmark year both for MAB and the wider market.”
