Tim Arrowsmith, formerly operating as The Financial Centre in Whitford, south Auckland, now has the LJ Hooker financial services franchise for east and south Auckland.
Russell Hutchinson, of Retirement Lifestyle Solutions, a subsidiary of Chatswood Consulting, has established a LJ Hooker financial services franchise on the North Shore.
Between them, Arrowsmith and Hutchinson have recruited and trained nine new loan writers.
Applications for franchises in Central and West Auckland, the bottom of the South Island, Northland, Hawkes Bay and East Coast, and the Bay of Plenty are being processed currently, LJ Hooker New Zealand financial services general manager Steven Dyhrberg says.
“We are still looking for good expressions of interest for three franchise areas – Wellington, Wairarapa and Waikato,” he says.
Once franchises in those areas are finalised, the financial services team will cover 99% of LJ Hooker’s real estate network in New Zealand.
That is expected to happen by the end of June, Dyhrberg says.
He believes there’s great potential for mortgage brokers in New Zealand this year with millions of dollars of fixed loans maturing and borrowers shopping around to replace them.
“Considering that interest rates have appreciated dramatically from when they first fixed those rates, there is going to be a huge amount of competition to do the best possible deal for those maturing loans,” he says.
“I think this is going to be a very good year for the mortgage broking industry.”
The firm hopes that from an initial mortgage broking basis, insurance and even referrals for utilities will be part of the customer package in the long term.
