One of Victoria’s largest real estate agencies, hockingstuart, has announced its move into mortgage broking with the launch of its broking arm, hockingstuart Finance.
Hockingstuart Finance will act as a standalone business, carrying over 500 loan products, including its own exclusive range of white label products, hockingstuart home loans.
The company is the brainchild of hockingstuart managing director and CEO Nigel O’Neil, who prior to joining the real estate network spent ten years at finance company Esanda Finance, a wholly owned subsidiary of
ANZ.
O’Neil says the launch of hockingstuart Finance is part of the group’s overall strategy to make the home-buying journey easier for its customers. The move follows the launch of its utility connection business YourPorter and the hockingstuart removals service last year.
“We’re increasingly realising the importance of leveraging our relationships to drive maximum value for our real estate customers and our businesses. Our agents understand the intricacies of moving house better than most – that’s why they often get enquiries from customers about financing their property purchase,” he said.
“hockingstuart Finance is built on the basis that there will be a high conversion rate of real estate clients to finance clients – furthermore ensuring our brokers are amongst the highest performing in the industry.”
O’Neil says the company is also proud to offer brokers a remuneration package based on salary plus commission, which is rare in the mortgage broking industry. Brokers will also get to take advantage of the company’s large database, giving them a unique value proposition in the mortgage lending market.
“The hockingstuart network sells over 6,000 properties per year, almost 14% of REIV reported sales in Victoria” O’Neil said.
“In this first phase of the business, the key is to recruit great people – people who are just as passionate about finance as the hockingstuart agents are about property.”
