Mortgage broker follows UK partner Purplebricks into Australia

Mortgage broker network Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) is to following its UK partner Purplebricks and enter the Australian market, it has been revealed.

The company’s CEO Peter Brodnicki (pictured) said during an interview with The Advisor that MAB has partnered with Australian counterpart MortgagePort and says it expect to gain a significant proportion of its leads through hybrid agency Purplebricks, which reported first revenues from its Australian operation earlier this month.

Brodnicki said MAB’s success in the UK had been underpinned by a “strong lead generation strategy” via strong referral relationships with UK estate agents, including Purplebricks.

“Both MAB and Purplebricks carried out extensive research before entering this market, and we both saw a big opportunity to bring a very new and customer-focused proposition to the Australian market,” said Brodnicki.

The research included bringing in former Barclays mortgage chief Steve Weston, who has joined 18-year-old MAB as a non-executive board member.

“Against this backdrop finding a partner of the quality and ambition of Mortgageport, our partnership with Purplebricks, who are a superb and forward-thinking firm to work with, together with Steve Weston’s continued involvement, means that the timing to test our expertise overseas couldn’t be better.”

Steve West added: “[MAB and Purplebricks] have both driven significant innovation in our respective markets, particularly via the use of technology and the leveraging of big data, and we will combine our expertise with that of the team at Mortgageport to deliver a new, exciting and highly scalable new business.”

In the UK MAB has over 900 brokers, launched on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 and reported revenues up by 33% for 2015/16 to £75.5 million.