Mortgage Advice Bureau says the total number of its advisers fell by 4% to 2,158 last year from 12 months ago, following a “difficult market”.
The decline includes 117 advisers from mortgage and insurance advice app Fluent Money, which the network bought for £72.2m in July 2022,
It adds that current trading is “encouraging” following the calming of mortgage rate spikes caused by rising base rates and the mini-Budget.
The Aim-listed firm says in a trading update: “While no organic adviser growth has been assumed for this year, we expect some of our appointed representative firms to resume recruitment earlier than planned if the current momentum continues, with the group returning to previously achieved levels of adviser growth in 2025.”
The business says that “activity levels built strongly in the second half of 2023, and continue to do so.
“Our delivery of technology, lead generation and retention initiatives are proving compelling, and we expect that to be reflected in our recruitment of new [appointed representative] firms this year.”
The number of appointed representative firms leaving networks stood at 1,070, while 1,077 joined, the study, completed in early January, reveals.
However, MAB points out that banking trade body UK Finance’s latest estimate of gross new mortgage lending for 2023 is £226bn, a 28% slump on the previous year.
The business says that “despite this difficult market”, it lifted revenue for the year by 4% to around £239m.
The firm adds: “The underlying level of demand for home ownership and home moves remains strong.
“As the cost of fixed-rate mortgages started to reduce at the end of last year, we saw early signs of increased purchase activity as well as refinancing.
“This pick-up in mortgage volumes has continued into January, with written volumes substantially higher than in January 2023 in the aftermath of the mini-Budget.”
It adds that adjusted profit before tax will come in “slightly ahead” of the market consensus when the business reports its full-year results on 19 March.
MAB chief executive Peter Brodnicki says: “2023 was an exceptionally challenging year with consumer confidence heavily impacted, resulting in many customers deciding to delay their house purchase or refinancing.”
