Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) Swansea and Belvoir Sales and Lettings, both award-winning franchise business, have come together to help the Swansea property market as it recovers from the lockdown period.
"The quarantine period certainly stalled the property market," said MAB director Dave Lewis, "but we knew it was only a matter of time until it picked back up, so we used the lockdown to look at ways in which we could return in a stronger position."
As one of the largest mortgage advisors in the UK, MAB has franchised offices throughout the country, and the Swansea office was opened by Dave Lewis and Richard Hullin in November 2016.
Fast forward to today, and what started as the two of them has now grown quickly into 14 members of staff with two more due to join at the end of the month.
Key to their growth has been the relationships they have with other businesses in the property sector, most notably sales and lettings agents and as fellow franchisees, the team at Belvoir had a lot in common with MAB Swansea.
"We started working with Dave and Richard in 2018, not long after we expanded our service to offer residential sales as well as lettings," said Belvoir director Ben Davies, "and when we got to know them, we realised that their journey in business was very similar to ours."
Another UK wide franchise business; Belvoir is a recognised brand in the industry and the Swansea office was opened in 2010 by husband and wife team Ben and Daisy Davies.
What started as the two of them in a single office on Castle Street has morphed into 14 members of staff with an additional office in Mumbles and a new office which is soon to open in Sketty, on the outskirts of the city.
"The last few years have been busy," continued Ben, "especially when our sales office took off, however, the lockdown put the brakes on our business, and after managing the initial crisis, we started planning for the future."
With a strong synergy between both companies, they discussed what a closer partnership would look like and quickly realised that MAB could solve an issue Belvoir had been facing for some time.
"Securing a mortgage offer can often take a long time," said Ben, "and we quickly realised that by having a MAB team member in our offices would enable us to offer in-house mortgage advice and speed the whole process up."
Step forward Jamie Morgan, a CERT Cii(MP) qualified mortgage advisor with over 13 years experience in the financial sector, who will work exclusively with the team at Belvoir on behalf of MAB Swansea.
Starting immediately, Jamie will work across all three Belvoir sites enabling the team at Belvoir to have access to MAB's unique estate agency portal which allows agents to log-in and see the progress of the mortgage application in real-time.
"For us, property is personal," continued Ben, "so having Jamie on site will not only enable us to offer in-house mortgage advice but we will be able to see the progress of applications in real-time."
The link-up will also see Belvoir help more customers from different financial backgrounds, thanks to the wide range of mortgage products MAB has access to.
Richard Hullin, director of MAB Swansea, said, "Unlike some lenders, we are not restricted to a handful of mortgage products but have direct access to hundreds of regulated mortgage providers, including specialist lenders who work with self-employed individuals or those who are first-time buyers."
This access also increases the speed of the mortgage process, so the time between mortgage application and an offer is usually a few days, sometimes a few hours and this speed will be a key feature of the relationship as both businesses look to bounce back stronger from the lockdown.