National mortgage group adds 50 new brokers

The ‘Plus One’ initiative, which was officially launched in January 2014 and will run until the end of June, offers franchisees a monetary incentive to bring another loan writer on board.

“Over the last 12 months we have invested in recruitment incentive programs, enabling us to add 50 new loan writers to our network,” Mr Russell said.

This has resulted in approvals increasing by 11.4 per cent and settlements growing by 9.0 per cent compared with the first half of 2014, he said.

“With low interest rates keeping heat in the property market, we expect our broker network to become even busier in the months ahead,” he added.

Mortgage Choice CFO Susan Mitchell explained that the group is paying out loan writer incentives to its franchisees should they hire additional loan writers in the period up until June 30.

The group’s half-yearly results noted that $298,000 was paid out in the loan writer recruitment incentive.

“The loan writer incentives will run off by the end of the year which should result in a reduced payout ratio next year,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mortgage Choice announced that its total loan book had reached $48.4 billion over the six months to 31 December 2014, up 4.5 per cent from $46.4 billion during the corresponding 2013 period.

The company expects its book value to hit $50 billion within the first six months of next year.

Housing loan approvals also showed an increase, with $6.9 billion worth written in the six months, up from $6.2 billion in the first half of 2014.

The results indicated the settlements and approvals trend remains strong, increasing by 9.0 per cent and 11.4 per cent respectively, in comparison with the first half of 2014.

Mr Russell said the result was not surprising given the strength in the housing market.

“We’re certainly doing our best to leverage that and our results are evidence of that,” he said.

[Related: Mortgage Choice's monthly settlements exceed $1 billion]