The research, by More Than Business, revealed that 12% of owners were re-locating to smaller premises. Over a quarter said that they had seriously considered relocating, a figure that rose to 30% in the West Midlands.
The managing director of More Than, Janet Connor, said: “Business owners care about the bottom line and rightly so. It’s sad that so many small business owners have had to remortgage their homes and take hefty pay cuts, but at the same time it shows real compassion on their part that they’re prepared to sacrifice personal gains for the sake of their staff.”
The number of mortgage brokers has shrunk from 30, 000 before the financial crisis to approximately 12, 000 today.
Robert Sinclair, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries said that he was aware that, as business-owners, many mortgage brokers had made difficult adjustments to their lifestyles.
He said that while short term loans could help, brokers should think hard before turning to equity to sustain their business. “That is something they should be very careful about. That holds a risk for everybody in their family.”
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at Jon Charcol, said that he had clients who made this decision. He suggested that business-owners might decide to remortgage their homes because other routes to raising money, such as business loans, were becoming less attractive.
“For the typical businessman, that would be the most sensible way, and the cheapest,” he said.
