Mortgage completions for September by number of cases and value showed improvements from August of 15% and 12% respectively. The monthly year-on-year improvement, compared to September 2012, was considerably greater with the number of cases completed up by 79% and the value of mortgages improving by 67%.
Quarter three figures also showed ongoing growth with the value of mortgages up 22.5% on the previous three months and case numbers up 19%. The results also showed a remarkable 71% increase in mortgage completions over the same period in 2012
Mortgage protection and life assurance sales have shown continued strong trends. Quarter three completions were up 18% on the previous three months and 35% over the same period in 2012.
Stonebridge continues to put the increasing business levels down to a number of factors notably an ongoing increase in the number of advisers within the business and an improvement in overall productivity levels.
Stonebridge Mortgage Solutions houses close to 200 directly authorised advisers and is a member of the Nouveau Mortgage Club.
Richard Adams, Managing Director of Stonebridge Group, commented:
“After a steady start to 2013 our figures since March have grown significantly meaning quarter three was by far the best three-month period we have enjoyed for a number of years. While the improvement over quarter two this year was very pleasing it is our year-on-year results which show just how far the UK mortgage market has come in a relatively short space of time. In terms of mortgages completed by value we are almost double the same period in 2012 and nearly three-quarters up in terms of numbers of cases.
"There are many reasons for this including the Government and Bank of England stimulus to the housing and lending markets, the increased appetite from lenders plus we have seen an increase in adviser numbers and productivity within the business. It is also good to see protection sales increasing. There has been a lot of industry comment in recent months about protection sales falling back as the mortgage market improves but that has not been our experience so far. We anticipate similar improvement in the last three months of the year as we see growing interest from potential borrowers in Help to Buy/higher LTV products and we encounter the pre-Christmas surge as movers and purchasers look to move in before the holiday season.”
