London and Essex based broker Sammon Mortgages is embarking on an ambitious recruitment drive as buyer demand for property overwhelms the sector.

The broker is seeking to hire 50 self-employed mortgage advisers over the next six months. It is a sign of the current buoyancy of the housing market versus other parts of the economy that are reporting heavy job losses.

All new advisers joining Sammon will benefit from a commission split and comprehensive tech support.

The firm, which is not shy about its bold future growth plans, uses Ladder – a custom-built digital mortgage platform – that means advisers can work remotely to grow their business without having to spend time on paperwork, allowing them to “concentrate on spending more time with new and existing clients and generating additional revenue”.

To lead the expansion, Sammon has appointed Karen Nicholls as sales director for the self-employed advice arm of the business.

She has almost 20 years’ experience working within financial services, and joins Sammon Mortgages from Cynergy Bank where she was head of intermediary sales for four years. She has also held f senior roles at Clydesdale Bank, National Australia Group and Barclays.

Sammon Mortgages founder and chief executive Vince Sammon says: “Karen’s appointment is fundamental in our ambitious growth plans and her extensive experience across the lending and intermediary marketplace will prove vital in taking the business to the next level.”

Nicholls says that the decision for mortgage advisers to become self-employed has never been more attractive, adding “it’s vital that they arm themselves with the right tools to meet ever-changing client needs and make their sales, admin and compliance procedures more efficient and effective”.

“The Ladder platform’s innovative customer portal and back-end processes is the envy of other firms and will prove a key draw in attracting new advisers to the business both on a sole trader or appointed representative basis,” she adds.

Pent-up demand since the lifting of the spring lockdown, combined with the incentive of a stamp duty holiday until next March, has created a frenzy of activity in the housing market, sending prices soaring and leading to delays at every stage of the process as banks and advisers struggle to keep up.

Research by Legal & General Mortgage Club, which surveyed housing market advisers, conveyancers and estate agents, found the average purchase from finding a property to completion is taking at least 15 weeks, four months, as processing times for applications have doubled due to high levels of demand.