Think of one government scheme that has influenced the shape of the mortgage market in the last five years and what do you come up with?
It’s pretty likely you said Help to Buy. You may have mentioned Right to Buy or perhaps even the Mortgage Rescue Scheme.
But how many of you mentioned StartUp Britain?
StartUp Britain was launched in March 2011 to provide “inspiration and support to aspiring entrepreneurs” and since then annual start-up rates have increased from 440,600 in 2011 to a record-breaking 581,173 in 2014.
This year think-tank, Centre for Entrepreneurs, which runs the scheme, expects the number of new business launched to exceed 600,000.
According to research Kensington released earlier this year, nearly 40% of business owners are considering undertaking a mortgage transaction – either to move home, remortgage or buy a second property – in the next three years. So you could be looking at 240,000 of 2015’s crop of start-up entrepreneurs entering the market for a new mortgage before 2019.
To put this in context, the number of people who used the Help to Buy scheme in the first year was 71,000.
What’s more, these new business owners are not just confined to the streets of London. The growth is spread right across the country. According to Experian, Leeds has seen the largest net gain in the number of new businesses and more than half of the top 20 are outside of the M25.
This means that, wherever you are, there is a good chance the demand for mortgages from clients who are newly self-employed is growing. High street lenders are traditionally cautious in this area so you have an opportunity to provide entrepreneurs a choice of mortgages from specialist lenders that they cannot get elsewhere.
StartUp Britain is happening and it is happening near you. Don’t miss the chance to make the growth of new businesses a way of growing your business.
