DeVere United Kingdom has launched a new, standalone brand called deVere Mortgages.
The FCA-regulated firm has established the new brand to meet rising demand from overseas-based clients.
Mitch Hopkinson of deVere United Kingdom will oversee the deVere Mortgages team that will be led by David Eggison, Lee Adams and Martin Grundy – all of whom have a minimum of 20 years’ experience of personally helping clients.
Hopkinson said: “After identifying consistently increasing demand for our independent, whole of the market mortgage advice and protection services, the decision was taken to establish deVere Mortgages, an independently-run division of deVere United Kingdom.
“This new proposition, which is backed by the significant resources of a robust and responsible organisation and managed by a team of senior industry professionals, will enable us to better serve our existing and potential expatclients and further extend our already broad scope of mortgage offerings.
“Despite recent reports of a cooling UK housing market, deVere has registered a month-on-month rise in mortgage enquiries over the last year. And we forecast this upward trend to continue and increase further.
“As part of a truly global organisation which has 80,000 mainly expatriate clients, this skyrocketing demand for our mortgage advice is fuelled primarily from people living overseas or returning British expats who, because they live and work abroad, would typically be branded as ‘high risk’ by UK lenders.”
DeVere said it obtained a mortgage agreement for 95% of its expatriate clients who applied in 2014. With its standalone deVere Mortgages brand, the firm says it plans to increase the volume of mortgage business by up to 300% in 2015.
DeVere Mortgages, which works with more than 200 UK and international lenders, aims to assist UK residents and overseas clients with the purchase and refinance of their UK home with a variety of mortgages. In addition to this, deVere Mortgages will also specialise in buy-to-let opportunities, equity release, re-mortgaging overseas properties and tax optimisation from rental income.
Hopkinson added: “We believe other possible contributing factors in this soaring demand for our independent mortgage advice from expats include the tougher rules for securing mortgages, rising house prices, the possibility of rising interest rates, plus the uncertainty prompted by the general election and global economic growth concerns.
“All these factors create a more challenging mortgage environment, and it would seem that expatriates seeking to secure a home loan in Britain are now increasingly aware of the need to seek highly specialist mortgage advice from industry experts who have established relationships with the relevant lenders.”
