Announced at the Stonebridge annual national conference this week, Jo Carrasco, the firm’s business partnership director, said the network outperformed the wider market’s 28 per cent decline in gross mortgage lending.
Although the lending volume was lower, the network processed 14 per cent more mortgage applications than the year before, and the volume of lending rose by nine per cent.
Some 41 per cent of the applications generated were for house purchase, down from the prior year’s share of 48 per cent. Some 12 per cent of these were buy-to-let (BTL) applications, a decrease from 15 per cent previously.
Stonebridge saw a rise in product transfer business, rising from 24 per cent in 2022 to 35 per cent last year.
The network said 2023 had been challenging for advisers, but overall the year was good when it came to growth and trading.
Its adviser numbers increased from 1,055 at the end of 2022 to 1,166 at the end of last year.
In its protection division, some 25,000 clients arranged life policies. For its general insurance business, the average commission value by application increased by 13 per cent and completions rose by 34 per cent.
Presentations and panel sessions covering protection, later life lending, surveying and specialist lending took place, with an overall theme of ‘Experience. Insight. Growth’.
Over 50 lenders, providers and other property firms were also in attendance as exhibitors.
Comedian Jimmy Carr was the host for the dinner and award ceremony held after the conference.
A strong set of results for Stonebridge
Rob Clifford (pictured), chief executive of Stonebridge, said: “Everyone active in the mortgage and protection advice space will be acutely aware of the challenging conditions the sector faced during 2023, and the rollercoaster adviser firms endured during the course of those 12 months.
“Particularly in that context, we were very pleased to announce a strong set of results for the network, which is down to the excellence of the member firms across our business, their ability to identify the opportunities that exist and to make the most of them, while also providing their customers with the best possible outcomes.”
He added: “In the mortgage industry, we all know there was a significant drop in new lending year-on-year (YOY), however our own total lending volumes were only marginally below the 2022 out-turn, as we significantly increased our adviser numbers, improved our mortgage application numbers plus continued to see strong performance in protection and general insurance business.
“Our conference highlighted that 2024 has the potential to be a much more positive year for advisers, and their customers, as we have already seen in January, which kicked the year off at some pace.
“However, some challenges still remain – while the number of mortgage pricing changes may well recede, given the likely general election in 2024, which will have an impact, plus other geopolitical factors, these factors have the capacity to weigh heavily on the UK economy.”
Clifford said the speakers at the conference suggested there were still positives and opportunities in the market, particularly with the expectation of a falling base rate in the second half of the year.
He added: “Certainly, we at Stonebridge have no intention of slowing up in terms of our investment in technology and people to support our appointed representative (AR) firms, in order to help grow their proposition, and ultimately, their income.
“The Stonebridge National Conference highlighted the many benefits of being part of a well-capitalised network with the scale and ambition to continue to grow and an intention to further develop our offering. In that sense, our strategy remains the same and we believe this will continue to reap rewards for all our ARs through 2024 and beyond.”
