Lender finally makes it to Gastown after two years of record growth in Ontario
This article was produced in partnership with Oppono Lending.
Desmond Devoy, of Canadian Mortgage Professional, sat down with Faheem Tejani, president of Oppono Lending, about the company’s expansion into the British Columbia market.
Following the age-old advice to “Go west,” Oppono Lending is doing just that, venturing into the hot Vancouver market.
Oppono is one of the fastest-growing lenders in the country, priding itself on transparency and quick turnaround times, thanks in part to a state-of-the-art, in-house technology platform.
Doing mostly residential property lending, and operating exclusively in Ontario, with a staff of 45, it has been looking to expand outside of Canada’s most populous province for a while.
“We were actually looking to go to Vancouver earlier,” said Oppono president Faheem Tejani (pictured), during a recent interview. “But then the pandemic happened, so it delayed us going in.”
With the volatility of the markets in the past three years, “we didn’t feel it was the appropriate time to enter into a new market,” he said.
But now that the pandemic is receding in the rear-view mirror, Vancouver’s housing market is again one of the hottest in the country, indeed, the second biggest in the country.
“Given the success we’ve had in Ontario, we think we can replicate that success by offering products that not every MIC has,” he said, positioning themselves between banks and credit unions on one hand, and private lenders on the other.
Oppono is currently accepting residential first mortgage applications in Vancouver. Brokers can submit applications through Filogix and Velocity. Interested brokers who want to learn more can reach out to regional mortgage originator Anterjot Sidhu at [email protected].
Additionally, Oppono’s Vancouver broker catalogue is available at https://oppono-app.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/oppono-broker-catalogue-greater-vancouver-2023.pdf.
The Vancouver applications are still being handled out of the Toronto-area office, but they do have on-the-ground support with a Vancouver underwriter. The company hopes to “scale up” to an office with boots on the ground in the next year.
“We are focused on getting the right people,” Tejani said.
Looking forward to the remainder of 2023
As rates have climbed, Oppono knows that competitive pricing on space will be needed.
“We’re really focused initially on first mortgages,” Tejani said. “Maximum LTV is going to be 75%. Minimum credit score 680. Those are the main criteria. The benefit of our model is we don’t income verify. We’re very much equity-based lenders,” meaning that by not looking at income, one can price in between where the bank market is and the MIC market. “There’s a space there where you can play.”
So far in 2023, Oppono has seen originations pick up, though they are mindful of where rates and payments have gone.
“We are definitely trying to work with our borrowers,” he said. For example, even if, during a renewal, a LTV is higher than what they would typically allow for, “as long as the borrower is making payments, we’re going to work with them. We understand that we are in a unique environment where mortgage payments have moved up significantly as a result of unprecedented interest rate increases.”
Oppono is focused on finding creative solutions to situations and staying in close contact with its borrowers and supporting its broker partners by providing innovative products and solutions.
“It’s a lot harder now to try and close a mortgage now than it was when rates were very low,” he said.
Whether in Toronto or Vancouver, Tejani urged those broker partners who have not tried them to do so.
“We’ve been in the market for a long time,” he said. “Brokers that use us a lot are pretty much an extension of our sales team.”
