The network is providing the service through two of its existing members, Commercial Choice and MansellBenoy, with both offering an introductory fee when the case completes if the AR processes the application through them.
Justine Tomlinson, marketing director for Mortgage Next, commented: “We’re delighted to have agreed this ‘member-help-member’ scheme. There is no doubt that the commercial mortgage market is an important growth area for many of our members, but unfortunately a large number of them have limited experience of dealing with commercial applications.
“This scheme gives our ARs the opportunity to dip their toes into the commercial market, without worrying about making mistakes and letting clients down.”
Many brokers see commercial brokering as a highly specialised area, but intermediaries have admitted the area is a potentially lucrative one to get into, and Mortgage Next is hoping to help its ARs into the market.
Nick Mansell, managing director of MansellBenoy, said: “Commercial lending is different to arranging residential mortgages but that is not a reason to ignore this growing market sector, especially if help is at hand. With the residential market forecast to remain flat during 2006, these types of opportunities to spread into new markets should be taken up.”
However, Jim Gillespie, principal at Independent Financial Services, is surprised this facility hasn’t been available in the past.
He said: “It’s a good idea but I’m more surprised Mortgage Next are only just making this available to its members now. It’s nothing revolutionary and most brokers would already have some kind of provision in place if they wanted to do commercial business.”
