Brokerage opens office in Nepal

The new office, its second offshore presence (after Manila), was officially opened last week.

Headed up by Sweta Manandhar (a mortgage document specialist who worked at Smartmove’s Rhodes office for six years), the six members of the Kathmandu office aim to help support the growing workload of Smartmove brokers and derisk the brokerage’s operations.

Speaking to The Adviser after returning from Nepal (which included a visit to Mount Everest’s Base Camp — see feature image), Smartmove chief executive officer, Darren Little, explained that the brokerage last year processed around 3,500 home loans. However, with a growing team of brokers (currently around 25 brokers with more new-to-industry brokers coming through its new broker training academy), more support was required to help build files, provide quality assurance, and offer pre-settlement care.

Moreover, he flagged that as the Philippines was hard hit by COVID-19 lockdowns, earthquakes, and a tsunami last year, opening an office in a second country (but utilising the same systems and processes) helped reduce liability. 

“When COVID-19 struck, we realised the risks of having all our eggs in one basket. We process a lot of loans [there] every year and it had got to a stage where having all our processing in one place was quite a substantial business risk in its own right,” Mr Little said.

“While we already had a secondary site in the Philippines, they actually had more COVID-19 than there was in Metro Manila — so we just couldn’t get there. 

“So, we thought we had to look broader than just being in the Philippines. Last year, we headed to Nepal to see if we could open an office there, as we thought if we were to have another tsunami or another COVID-19 outbreak, we would need to have the ability to move, and move quickly.”

Mr Little and Smartmove executive director David Brell travelled to Nepal late last year to set up the new Smartmove office with the team, who had been working out of a serviced office for a few months while the building was being renovated.

“We bought a building last year and renovated it to look like our Philippines office, and now we’ve just moved into it,” Mr Little said.

“There’s plenty of room for expansion now so we can take on more processing, both for Smartmove brokers and for those businesses we invest in.

“Having a Nepalese office worked really well for us over the holidays, as they have different public holidays to Australia and the Philippines, so we can still move a large amount of files over the holiday periods.

“Now, we start early in the morning here in Australia, with the Philippines working in two shifts and then we have a third shift, which is Kathmandu.”

[Related: Outfox the traps of outsourcing]