Bank of Ireland expects to deliver €325 million of mobile mortgage sales this year as rising competition in the market forces banks to take to the roads to visit potential customers in their workplaces, cafes and at home during evenings and weekends.
The figure equates to more than 16 per cent of the bank’s total Irish mortgages last year. While the service started in 2011 with only two people, the team has since grown to 25 as the lender deals with a 50 per cent surge this year in mortgage appointments conducted outside its branches.
“Our mobile mortgage service allows customers discuss one of their most significant financial decisions whenever and wherever it suits them,” said John O’Beirne, head of products at Bank of Ireland. “This often involves our mobile team meeting customers at home in the evening when the kids are in bed, or at the weekend when they are off.”
With analysts at Davy estimating that the total mortgage market will increase 26 per cent this year to €9.2 billion, retail banks are sending more sales staff outside to their branches to win business.
“The bigger picture is that improving housing market liquidity and higher home-building levels mean the point at which mortgage credit in Ireland stabilises will soon come to fruition,” Davy said in a report published last week.
Bank of Ireland’s new mortgage lending increased by 33 per cent in the first three months of the year, the bank said in a recent trading statement, helping to lift its share of the market to 28 per cent from 27 per cent for the entire of 2017.
Advisers
Permanent TSB currently has about 100 advisers out in the field following distribution changes announce by the bank a year ago, according to a company spokesman. "Feedback is positive, and this is now a key distribution channel which has helped with the strong growth in market share over the past year or so."
Elsewhere, AIB introduced workplace banking three years' ago, a service it expanded in January to include mobile mortgage managers.
“Our 18 mobile mortgage managers are happy to meet our customers where and when it suits them to help them on their home-buying journey,” a spokesman for the group said.
