The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) has added specialist mortgage lender Proportunity as an associate member, bringing its overall membership to 56.
The lender becomes the 12th associate member, with Proportunity’s head of lending Matthew Froggatt acting as the firm’s representative.
IMLA currently has 44 members spanning banks, building societies and specialist lenders, alongside 12 associated mortgage service providers like Twenty7Tech, Mortgage Brain and LSL Property Services.
Founded in 2016, Proportunity provides second charge top-up loans to aspiring homeowners, which can increase a buyer’s budget by up to £90,000 and is similar to the Help to Buy scheme.
The company aims to support one million homeowners by 2030 and has helped finance 41 million property sales, according to its website.
IMLA’s executive director Kate Davies said: “Proportunity offers an innovative solution to aspiring homeowners aimed at helping them to meet affordability requirements, an issue faced by many since the introduction of the Mortgage Market Review in 2014.
“We are delighted to welcome them into membership and look forward to hearing more from the team at IMLA’s upcoming meetings and roundtable sessions.”
Proportunity’s chief executive and co-founder Vadim Toader (pictured) said: “As part of our brand journey, we are excited to have joined Imla’s membership, which will provide significant opportunity to collaborate with the wider market. We look forward to meeting with IMLA’s wider membership over the coming months.”
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.