Mortgage Express has spectacular half year

Mortgage Express' mortgage book grew to £10.69bn (compared with £7.2 at 31st December 2002)

Gross advances totalled £3.4bn compared with £1.30bn in the first six months of 2002

Online applications in the half year continue to grow and amounted to 37.4% of all applications

Purchased portfolios added mortgages worth £730 million to the book

The first half of this year has seen a great deal of activity for Mortgage Express:

It won awards from Mortgage Strategy (Best Buy-To-Let), Mortgage Introducer (Best Buy-To-Let), Moneywise (Best Buy-To-Let), Mortgage Adviser and Homebuyer (Best Buy-To-Let), and Mortgage Magazine (Best Buy-To-Let and Best 100%).

Through sister companies MarketPlace and Charcol, it launched Step Ladder, an innovative product designed to help first time buyers. It has been very well received in a market keen to see innovation in this area.

True to its pioneering reputation when it comes to Buy-To-Let, Mortgage Express developed a Limited Company product, allowing property investors to take advantage of the tax breaks associated with setting themselves up as companies.

Tim Dawson, Managing Director, said: "As promised at the end of 2002, we have continued to focus on our winning strategy of developing carefully-researched specialist products, alongside consistently good service. Thanks to the commitment of our staff and our intermediary business partners, we have been able to continue to innovate and to improve what we offer. And with a number of developments due over the next couple of months, I'm certain that the latter part of this year will be even better than the first."