Mortgage Advice Bureau describes stabilising market

Mortgage Advice Bureau said in an update on Wednesday that in the second quarter of the year, its adviser numbers stabilised at 2,121 as at 19 May.

The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said it expected its existing appointed representative firms to resume growth in adviser numbers later in the year.

It said the anticipated growth was likely to coincide with improved consumer confidence, driven by greater certainty over mortgage interest rates and the overall economic outlook.

Additionally, MAB said it was seeing a robust increase in its pipeline of incoming new appointed representatives throughout the current year.

As predicted, the wider market experienced a slowdown in the value of completions in the first quarter, with a 21% decrease in new mortgage lending year-on-year.

However, MAB's total mortgage completions for the same period remained relatively stable at £5.8bn - marginally down from £5.9bn in 2022.

Within that figure, new mortgage completions amounted to £4.4bn, compared to £4.9bn in 2022, while product transfers accounted for £1.4bn, up from £1bn a year earlier.

Notably, MAB said it had managed to increase its market share, despite a reduction in the number of advisers since the fourth quarter of last year.

"During the six months following the mini-budget, new mortgage approvals across the market were down by as much as 40% versus the prior year,” non-executive chair Katherine Innes Ker explained.

“There are early signs of increasing activity and mortgage approval levels have now gradually started to improve, but remain significantly lower than for the equivalent period last year.

“MAB's performance, despite challenging market conditions, remains in line with the board's expectations with further improvement expected in the second-half of the year.”

At 1122 BST, shares in Mortgage Advice Bureau Holdings were up 1.3% at 806.34p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.