SoMo, one of the UK’s leading specialist lenders, has set itself a target of lending £250m over the next 12 months and has set the wheels in motion with newly announced premises in London, which will act as a central hub for future expansion and to further cement their presence across the UK.
Based in Greater Manchester, SoMo has already lent over £184m under its ethos to lend money safely and securely. It has now set itself a goal of growing loans by 34% to £250m over the next year.
Its new office will have a dedicated London-based underwriting team with experience and expertise in the highly competitive London bridging space, which will be vital in helping SoMo’s Greater London broker network secure fast completions. Greater London brokers will receive the same excellent service and market leading products from SoMo, which have been reshaped for its capital community of brokers and introducers, all offered at SoMo’s competitive Northern rates.
SoMo will continue to apply its no-nonsense Northern approach to everything it does including no application forms, a paperless process and its famous Valuation Only product. Following a significant rebrand from The BridgeCrowd at the end of last year, SoMo has since gone from strength to strength, redeeming £117m in loans and paying £13.9m in interest to date in 2021 with zero capital losses. Additionally, it can be revealed that across seven years SoMo has maintained an ROI of 11.8% for its investors.
In Q3 SoMo continues to exceed previous lending records, including the amount lent in an individual month and also the amount lent in a calendar year. It has also achieved repeat business over 80% and conversion rates trending at 50%.
BROKER FINANCE
The launch of its SoMo Broker Family in April this year has been pivotal to much of the ongoing success of the business. Providing an exclusive experience to those with proficiency in bridging, the initiative offers a host of benefits including access to new and exclusive funding lines and enhanced procuration fees. Currently, 38 brokers from the lender’s network have been selected to join and SoMo has seen repeat business making up around 85% of deals done since the launch of Family.
In May, SoMo also launched its Investor Family, an initiative which came as part of the businesses ongoing commitment to giving back to existing and loyal investors. The initiative comes with exclusive perks including current rate protection, amongst many other benefits.
Last month, to further strengthen its product offering, the business has launched SoMo 300k+, specifically for loans between £300k and £3m, which sits neatly beside its hugely popular Low Rate product and Valuation Only offerings. More products are in development and planned to launch before 2022.
The business is looking to grow its current active loan book of £60m to £80m by year end. Last year, SoMo secured a significant, institutional funding arrangement to continue its sustainable growth trajectory.
Last year SoMo focused on expanding its team, appointing Jamie Jolly into the role of Managing Director and growing its headcount to over 50 people. Since January, there have been further hires in the business development team, now at a headcount of nine from five at the beginning of 2021. The marketing team has also recently expanded from being two to five-strong, as SoMo prepares for rapid future growth.
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