Mortgage Soup fires the questions at Jason Berry, group sales director at Crystal Specialist Finance.
Mortgage Soup (MS): What does your role as group sales director at Crystal Specialist Finance involve?Â
Jason Berry (JB): I am responsible for Crystal’s sales and distribution strategy, directing the hugely talented people in our sales team and evolving relationships with our broker and lender partners. My job involves constantly listening to feedback to ensure we are genuinely serving the needs of our customers and developing our proposition – ultimately, I’m here to facilitate growth. As the ‘broker’s broker’ we predominantly help brokers place more complex bridging, buy-to-let and commercial cases. However, as technology improves, we are also moving into more residential areas notably for expat and those clients with adverse credit and also seeing an increasing amount of second charge opportunities. This inevitably means our lender partnerships are widening and we have funded with 55 lenders over the last 12 months.
MS: Crystal SF describes itself as ‘the broker’s broker’ – how does that differ from the traditional packager role?Â
JB: The market has evolved significantly in the past five years, and the term ‘packager’ is outdated. Today’s expert mortgage distributor does not just provide product sourcing, placement and completion, but often full advice, recommendation and fulfilment, when brokers refer cases to us. With mortgage networks and clubs increasingly keen to mitigate risk, there is huge opportunity for us to deliver refer and earn solutions.
Brokers who are either too busy or are wary of taking on complex bridging or buy-to-let cases, for example, can introduce them to our dedicated teams of experts. We know that this can involve a leap of faith – they have to trust that we won’t let them and their clients down or disappoint them. So we always need to have outstanding customer service and outcome front of mind.
MS: Which market sectors present the biggest opportunity for brokers in 2025?Â
JB: Demand for bridging solutions is growing as people’s circumstances become more varied and unusual. This is a sizeable niche which is now worth more than £10bn in completions a year, and it’s not all about financing auction property purchases. Borrowers are often looking to raise capital quickly to refurbish buy-to-lets, convert single dwellings to HMOs, buy their next home while waiting to sell an unusual property…opportunities for brokers abound.
There is also plenty of activity in the buy-to-let market – this year will see record levels of buy-to-let remortgaging, as landlords roll off existing fixed rates. And while many landlords are admittedly feeling beaten up by heavier taxes and tightening regulation, their entrepreneurial skills are rising to the surface, with many diversifying their portfolios, pivoting to commercial and semi-commercial property.
MS: What type of cases are you seeing brokers reaching out for assistance with?Â
JB: We want to make the complex simple – and brokers predominantly bring us their more multifaceted cases, whether they be bridging, buy-to-let, commercial, expat resi or second charge. We usually find it easy to deliver on a case that looks complex to most brokers, because this work is our bread and butter. We have close relationships with those 55 lenders mentioned earlier, we know what each of them will and won’t consider, and we know how to present each case on its individual merits, to secure the optimal solution for the broker and their client.
MS: What is currently on your radar outside of the core business?
JB: We are rapidly identifying those ancillary services most useful to more complex mortgage borrowers and building up a suite of solutions to offer them. These currently include a service to reclaim Embedded Capital Allowance tax, another that arranges personal guarantee insurance and a third that provides homeowners and landlords with energy efficiency improvements.
The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter (MIMHC) is also always on my radar, we have some exciting activities coming up: a fundraising industry netball championship on 4th May, closely followed by the annual Walk and Talk event from 11th to 16th May, when I will be walking from Digbeth, Birmingham to London Victoria, accompanied by numerous mortgage industry colleagues, to mark Mental Health Awareness week. And I’m very excited about the MIMHC Charity Ball on 10th October – it’s all systems go!
