The Mortgage Mogul is targeting further growth after establishing a high street presence in Wolverhampton, with founder Balwant Dhaliwal aiming to double the mortgage and protection business over the next year.

Dhaliwal (main picture), a mortgage and protection adviser, launched the firm in 2023 and initially operated remotely before moving into serviced offices and subsequently taking dedicated high street premises.

The firm will officially open the new office today (11 September) with the event also raising money for Dementia UK.

Dhaliwal believes having a visible presence in the community will help differentiate the brokerage from predominantly home-based competitors while creating opportunities to build referral relationships with other local businesses.

HIGH STREET OPPORTUNITY

He said the additional cost of the premises compared with his previous office could be covered by completing one additional case, while the potential benefits from increased visibility and passing footfall were significantly greater.

The location also puts the brokerage close to businesses including accountants and independent estate agents, creating further opportunities for local partnerships and referrals.

Dhaliwal said: “People are more likely to do business with someone they know, like and trust.”

The Mortgage Mogul now plans to recruit as volumes increase, with Dhaliwal ultimately aiming to establish the business as the go-to mortgage broker in Wolverhampton.

He also hopes to double the size of the business over the coming year while continuing to grow its client base.

Mortgage Soup fires the questions at Dhaliwal ahead of today’s grand opening.

MS: At a time when so much of financial services is moving online, why have you decided that now is the right time to open a high street office?

BD: I’m a fundamental believer that people still value dealing with a real person.  For decades, the financial services industry has been based on developing long standing relationships with clients, which are then passed down through the generations of those families.  People still want to know that there is someone they can actually talk to.

Mortgages are one of the biggest financial commitments most people will ever make, and for many clients it can be quite daunting.

Yes, you can complete an application online, but there’s still a real value in being able to sit down with someone, have a conversation, ask questions and know that there is a real person who understands your circumstances. No two cases or clients are the same.

For me, opening a high street office is about bringing that personal service back into the community. I want The Mortgage Mogul to be somewhere people can walk through the door, have a coffee, talk to us and get advice without feeling like they’re just a number on a screen.

The mortgage industry is getting more complexed as time evolves and having someone trusted and local dealing with your affairs is worth its weight in gold.

We are absolutely embracing technology to make the end to end process seamless for our clients, in addition to keeping our business compliant in the ever changing online space. I want to offer the best of both worlds – the convenience of modern technology, combined with the trust and personal service you get from dealing with someone face-to-face.

MS: Is this partly a reaction to what you’re hearing from customers – are people actually telling you they miss being able to sit down and speak to someone face-to-face?

BD: Its more of a case of giving people the option to choose which method they prefer. A lot of business has gone online because the high street is diminishing.

Costs are getting higher for businesses so its understandable since covid why so many have gone remote.

With mortgages and finances in general you are dealing with their livelihood and financial futures so giving people the assurity of knowing that a friendly face is available local to them is very important.

They are going online because they don’t have a recognisable or reliable brand they can go to locally.  The vast majority of brokers when you search – in Wolverhampton anyway – are located from their house so if a client did want to see them in person – it may not be as straightforward.

MS: What do you think gets lost when mortgage and financial advice becomes entirely digital?

BD: I think what can get lost is the personal connection. From the outside, a mortgage is just a transaction that allows someone to buy a home, but it’s so much deeper than that.

I like to build relationships with my clients – getting to know them, their family, their hobbies and what’s going on in their lives. So when they come back to me a few years later for a remortgage, the conversation isn’t just about their mortgage; it’s about what’s happened since we last spoke.

Advising on protection is even more difficult without developing that personal relationship, because you need to really understand a client’s life, their family and what’s important to them in order to understand what they actually need to protect.

MS: Mortgages are probably one of the biggest financial commitments most people will ever make. Do you think the industry sometimes underestimates how much reassurance people need during that process?

BD: Yes, most definitely. It’s very easy to assume that every client has at least some idea of how mortgages work and what the house-buying process entails, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Many first-time buyers enter the process with very little knowledge, and I think it’s important to provide them with as much guidance and reassurance as possible.

Buying a home can be a very daunting and stressful experience, so my role isn’t just about finding the right mortgage – it’s about being there to explain things, answer questions and make the whole process as straightforward as possible.

Sometimes just knowing that there’s someone you can pick up the phone to, or pop into to the office to ask questions to,  can make a huge difference.

MS: Why Wolverhampton? What is it about the city and the local community that convinced you there was an opportunity for this kind of proposition?

BD: Wolverhampton is where I live. It’s the city where I got married and where my children were born, so it’s a place I have a genuine connection with.

Having established my business here, I’ve also built up a really supportive network of local businesses and contacts who want to see each other succeed.

From a business perspective, I felt there was an opportunity to offer something slightly different. There are very few independent mortgage brokers with a genuine high-street presence in the local community, so I wanted to create somewhere that people could see, visit and connect with.

Previously, we were tucked away in a building with several other businesses and had very little visibility.

In less than a month on the high street, we’ve already had more new connections and enquiries than we had in the previous office in an entire year. That has really reinforced to me that there was a demand for what we’re doing.

MS: Bank branches have been disappearing from high streets for years. Does that create an opportunity for brokers and advisers to become the new physical face of financial services in their communities?

Absolutely. I think there’s a real opportunity for brokers and advisers to become the local, physical face of financial services.

Different generations have different preferences. Some people are very comfortable doing everything online, but there are still plenty of people who value being able to walk into a local office and speak to someone face-to-face.

With bank branches disappearing and access to mortgage advisers becoming less readily available, I think a visible presence on the high street can fill some of that gap. It gives people of all ages the reassurance that there is someone local they can talk to about their finances.

For me, that’s what I want The Mortgage Mogul to become – a recognisable, approachable financial services business that people in the community know they can walk through the door of.

MS: Who do you expect will actually walk through the door? Is this primarily about first-time buyers and people looking for mortgages, or do you expect customers to come in with much broader financial questions?

BD: It’s not necessarily about attracting people to just walk in off the street. A big part of it is about visibility. Our content across social media is creating visibility online, and the new office gives us that same visibility within the local community.

We’ve got a bold brand and we’re on a busy, high-footfall road, so people are going to see us regularly.

They might not need mortgage or protection advice today, but if they see The Mortgage Mogul every day for weeks or months, the seed is planted. Then when a mortgage or protection conversation comes up with a family member or friend, they might think, “Why don’t you speak to those guys in Finchfield?”

We’re also happy to help with broader financial questions. If something isn’t within our area of expertise, we’ve built relationships with IFAs, accountants and solicitors who we can refer people to. Our approach is holistic, so if we can’t help directly, we’ll certainly try to point them towards someone who can.

MS: How do you make a high street operation commercially viable in 2026? Is the office itself expected to generate business, or is its real value about visibility, trust and building relationships that last for years?

It’s all of the above, and I think they’re all interlinked.

My business, going back to when I started out as a self-employed adviser 14 years ago, has been built on a foundation of trust and delivering good customer outcomes.

When people trust you and are happy with the advice they receive, they come back to you for future business and they recommend you to their friends and family.

The office increases our visibility within the community, but that visibility on its own isn’t enough. It needs to be backed up by good advice, good service and relationships that last for years. The two things work hand in hand.

I’m a firm believer that if you look after the intangibles, have the right processes in place and treat people properly, the numbers will look after themselves.

MS: You’re launching with a community event and supporting Dementia UK. How important is it that the office becomes part of the local community rather than simply somewhere people go to arrange a mortgage?

Yes, I want my business to be successful, but I also want to give back to the community and help those in need.

For me, being a successful business isn’t just about the financial side. I think there’s a responsibility to give something back to the community you operate in, and that’s something I want to build into The Mortgage Mogul as we grow.

That’s one of the reasons why supporting Dementia UK through our opening event was so important to me. Having seen the impact of dementia on a family member, it was an easy decision to support the charity.

I also really liked Manny Singh Kang’s passion for fundraising and the way he combines that with his passion for promoting sport.

I’m particularly passionate about sport. I grew up playing team sports from my teenage years, and it’s given me so many transferable skills that I’ve carried into both my personal and working life – things like teamwork, discipline, communication and resilience.

Sport in schools is suffering because of the funding available, and that’s an area where I’d like to help as much as I can as the business grows.

I also want to create opportunities for people locally through employment and make sure that, as we grow, we do so responsibly and maintain strong ethical standards.

Ultimately, I want The Mortgage Mogul to be more than just a business that happens to have an office in Wolverhampton. I want it to become a business that is genuinely part of the community and gives something back to the people and organisations around us.

MS: If we came back to Wolverhampton in two years’ time and the office had been a huge success, what would that success look like – and could we potentially see you opening more high street branches elsewhere?

Success for me is defined in many ways. I’d definitely like to see the team grow into a multi-adviser firm with a strong support team around us.

If the fundamentals are put into place and things are done the right way, I believe the growth will be organic. Ultimately, I want The Mortgage Mogul to become the recognised go-to broker in the city.

That could potentially lead to several branches across Wolverhampton, but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. I’m more focused on building the right foundations and creating a business that is sustainable for the long term.

My main driver for building the business is actually my family. I have two young children, and I remember asking my eldest son, who is now eight, what me and his mum were always doing when he had his dinner on the table. I was expecting something along the lines of, “You’re always telling me to eat my food!”

Instead, he said, “You’re always working.”

That really hit home for me, because even at the age of five, he had noticed it.

I want to build a business that ultimately gives me the one commodity in life that you can’t buy – time. I want to be able to spend as much time with my children as possible before they get to an age where Mum and Dad aren’t the centre of their universe anymore.

For me, building the right business isn’t about me doing more and more. It’s about putting the right principles and processes in place, creating a great place where people want to come and work, and building a team around me who share my values and are aligned with the company’s goals.

If I can do that, then I think success takes care of itself – a successful business, a great team, happy clients and, most importantly, two very happy children who get to do plenty of fun stuff with Mum and Dad.