Day: May 21, 2025

Valouran has grown its senior team with the appointments of Richard Shaw, Richard Luffingham, Derek Mackenzie, Dani Charleson-Gallacher and Sarah Campbell. Shaw joins as managing director, head of development and brings with him more than 35 years of experience in the residential and commercial property sectors. In his new role, Shaw will be overseeing the company’s development portfolio. Luffingham has been brought in to take on the role of development director, with previous experience in residential and mixed-use development. He will help to drive planning, placemaking, development and construction across Volouran’s project pipeline. Meanwhile, MacKenzie will take on the position of commercial director and brings with him over 25 years of experience in quantity surveying and commercial management. MacKenzie will be responsible for commercial management and cost-control of large-scale redevelopment projects. Appointed as senior design manager, Charleson-Gallacher joins after almost 20 years at Merlin Entertainments as head of projects. Her previous hospitality design will help in overseeing the same aspects across Valouran’s hotel portfolio. Finally, Campbell has been named marketing director with brings with her a decade of strategic marketing experience across multiple sectors. In her new position, she will lead the company’s strategic marketing direction, overseeing media planning and multi-channel marketing campaigns to strengthen the company’s market presence. Valouran co-founder Matthew Robertson says: “Having launched Valouran in 2023, we have now reached a pivotal juncture, with a growing pipeline of projects, that requires us to expand our best-in-class team.” “We are honoured to welcome such a talented group of individuals. Their expertise in successfully delivering landmark projects gives us every confidence that they will uphold the calibre and high standard of work that we deliver at Valouran.” The post Valouran expands senior team with five appointments appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.

Mortgage Advice Bureau said that home loan completions were “particularly strong” in the first three months of the year, while it grew adviser numbers by 3% at the start at 2025. “Mortgage completions were particularly strong in the first quarter, boosted by the pull-forward of some property transactions ahead of the 31 March 2025 changes to stamp duty relief,” said the broker network’s chair Mike Jones at its annual meeting.  Jones added: “Purchase activity remains stronger year on year, underpinned by improving buyer affordability and an increased supply of new properties coming onto the market.   “If mortgage rates remain stable or decline further, we expect purchase activity in 2025 to continue to outperform 2024.  “Refinancing is expected to accelerate in the second half of 2025 and into 2026, as a significant number of five-year fixed mortgages from the post-pandemic boom, and two-year fixed deals taken out following the 2022 mini-Budget reach maturity.”  The network said its number of mainstream advisers at 16 May had grown 3% since the end of the year to 2,003.   It pointed out that as the housing and mortgage markets show signs of recovery, “we are seeing increased confidence among appointed representatives, with more advisers joining and momentum in newly appointed representative firm recruitment”.    Jones added: “The increased mortgage activity seen through the latter part of 2024 has continued into 2025. The cost of borrowing and mortgage rates have continued to decline from recent highs, with further cuts to the Bank of England’s base rate expected this year.”  The Bank has made two quarter-point reductions this year, bringing the base rate to 4.25%.  Money markets are currently betting on just one further cut this year after higher-than-expected inflation coming in at 3.5% today.  The post MAB says completions ‘strong’ in Q1, advisers rise 3%      appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.

Tim Sorrell has been appointed Key Account Manager for TMA Club. He was previously with Perenna Bank, where he managed key distributor relationships. Sorrell has also run his own brokerage, providing whole-of-market mortgage advice for his customers. TMA head of sales Sarah Evans said: “I am delighted to welcome Tim to the team. He is an accomplished key account manager, business development professional, and broker with a proven track record of exceeding business growth aspirations.” She added: “Tim’s breadth of experience, having worked as a broker and in a lender, gives him a unique insight into the challenges and opportunities brokers face and how lenders might support them. He will be a real asset to TMA and I look forward to growing the business with him in the future.” The post TMA appoints Sorrell key account manager appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.

Marsden Building Society has introduced a distribution team working alongside its lending department. The distribution team, which will compromise new hires and internal appointments, will be led by product manager Katie Broome. Broome brings extensive experience to the role, having worked within financial services for 14 years, including 10 years at Marsden Building Society. In addition, three business development advisors have been appointed, consisting of two new hires and one internal promotion, to provide virtual and face-to-face service for intermediaries. Commenting on the new team, Broome says: “Building relationships and providing excellent service are at the core of everything we do. This year, we’ve taken a significant step forward in our plans to expand our services with the establishment of our new Distribution team.” “Through the appointment of three new business development advisors, we can offer our intermediary partners a key point of contact.” Earlier this year in March, Marsden Building Society launched a 95% LTV residential mortgage at 4.99% The post Marsden BS introduces distribution team led by Broome appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.

Specialist property valuation firm VAS Assurance has changed its name to Validate.  The business, part of VAS Valuation Group, provides desktop valuations and auditing services aimed at specialist lenders and challenger banks. The firm says its key Validate Desktop+ product “sits between” an automated valuation model and a fully-inspected Rics red book valuation report. The product “provides an option to lenders when they do not want to use an automated valuation model, but for speed or flexibility, they want to utilise the firm’s internal valuers’ expertise”. The firm will continue to be led by founder Stephen Todd.  Todd says: “Originally founded as Valuation Audit Services, where the name VAS comes from, it then became known as VAS Audit and most recently VAS Assurance.  “The VAS Assurance business has evolved over the last decade, in line with the expansion of our services. “At the same time, we have seen tremendous growth in the VAS Panel business, which has undergone various rebrands itself.  “This move will now also allow us to rename the VAS Panel business to simply VAS.” The post VAS Assurance rebrands as Validate  appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.