Smart Money Loans (SML), which already has offices in England and Scotland, has announced its presence in Northern Ireland to help local intermediaries with their loan enquiries.

Gerry Doherty and Tony Brown join the team as part of the specialist second charge distributor’s strategy to offer brokers in Northern Ireland access to the new wave of lenders who are targeting the province.

Doherty said: “There is a lot of pent up demand over here for alternative capital raising methods, particularly as remortgaging is proving to be more difficult for many would be borrowers, so I am sure SML will have plenty of work to do with brokers keen to make use of these facilities.”

Paul Crewe, director at SML, added: “Lenders are beginning to wake up to the opportunities that Northern Ireland provides and thanks to moves by a few more far sighted lenders, I am sure we are going to see more lenders follow suit this year and SML with staff on the ground is in a great position to help them develop their proposition in this important market.”