Heron is widely recognised to be one of the architects of the modern buy-to-let market and his lobbying efforts on behalf of the industry were often under the radar.
Friend and CEO at Keystone Property Finance, David Whittaker said: “John has always worked with dignity and kindness and his huge achievements are not always fully recognised by the industry. His knowledge and impact will resonate far beyond his achievements at Paragon and I’m sure Nigel Terrington will find him extremely hard to replace.”
A search for Heron’s successor at Paragon has already begun.
The Paragon model is often viewed as the pre-eminent model of buy-to-let business lending as it weathered the credit crunch when many other lenders retrenched or closed as the crisis took hold.
In H1 results, Paragon reported a 16% rise in mortgage lending driven mainly by new buy-to-let business to £834m.
The lender reported the percentage of complex buy-to-let completions rising from 72% to 88% of first half lending and Paragon’s mortgage loan book rose by seven per cent to £10.8bn.
Paragon managing director John Heron said: “The timing seems appropriate for me. The business is in very good shape and we’re in a very strong position in our chosen segment of the market of portfolio landlords with a strong proposition, great management and an extremely stable business. My colleagues at Paragon have also been an outstanding group of professionals at the top of their game and a nice bunch of people.
“It’s always been busy and I expect it to be so until the day I step down,” added Heron.