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A string of new players entering the mortgage broking space are relying on strategic partnerships to succeed in a highly competitive market.
John Kinghorn’s return to the mortgages with a revamped LJ Hooker Home Loans will see the new business attempting to leverage the LJ Hooker real estate network.
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“John and myself saw a huge opportunity,” LJ Hooker Home Loans CEO Paul O’Regan said. “We’ve been looking at what will work best in terms of the real estate and home loans integration piece. I think that’s something that a lot of mortgage businesses struggle with,” he said.
“We believe we’ve got a good formula to make sure it works as best as it can. That’s about ensuring the LJ Hooker Home Loans side of the business is a ‘like-for-like’ model with the real estate franchise business.”
The new model will see branded LJ Hooker Home Loans stores covering “large territories”, or geographic areas, for marketing purposes. Mr O’Regan said the group is looking to grow to 65 franchisees throughout Australia, with each franchisee having multiple loan writers working for them to ensure maximisation of the territory and servicing of the real estate network.
Conscious that the franchise model must stand alone and not rely solely on leads from real estate agents, Mr O’Regan said the group will form a strategic partnership with CoreLogic for digital lead generation.
Meanwhile, UK broking giant Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) is looking to leverage two key strategic partnerships for its entry to the Australian market in 2017.
The group has formed a joint venture with Mortgageport and will also partner with disruptive real estate business Purplebricks.
Established in 1998 by Michael McKelvie and Glen Spratt, the co-founder of Wizard Home Loans, Mortgageport is a direct-to-consumer mortgage manager, mortgage lender and mortgage broker. The group has a strong referral model and works with a range of business partners including accounting firms, builders, estate agents, financial planners and property developers to provide tailored mortgage lending solutions to their customers.
MAB’s Peter Brodnicki told The Adviser that the group’s success has been underpinned by a successful lead generation strategy. Strong referral relationships with real estate agents have been a core part of the UK business.
[Related: Aggregator partners with real estate network]
