More than half (51%) of mortgage intermediary firms are looking to expand, reflecting growing optimism amongst brokers, Paragon Bank has found.

In the summer edition of its mortgage intermediary insight report, the bank revealed that this figure has increased from 38% in winter 2023.

Conversely, the proportion of brokers who said their employer is scaling back has fallen from 7% to 5% in the same period.

The survey of over 200 mortgage brokers found that the most common approach to growth by businesses is recruitment, with over a quarter (27%) of intermediaries stating that experienced advisers are being employed, while 17% said their company is hiring more trainee advisers.

A further 16% noted that additional paraplanners are being utilised to help advisers with paperwork and 12% of brokers said that ‘other staff’ are bolstering headcounts where they work.

Furthermore, a quarter of mortgage intermediary businesses said they are expanding operations with new or enhanced marketing, with 23% investing in additional technology.

Commercial director for mortgages at Paragon Bank, Louisa Sedgwick, said: "It’s great to hear that brokerages are growing. Some are boosting their workforce numbers while others are upskilling existing staff, an approach that ultimately increases the expertise in the sector. In addition, we see that some firms are investing in marketing or technology, helping them to secure and service more business effectively."

Across the four different aspects of business for brokers: the mortgage industry, intermediary sector, own firm and buy-to-let, all saw increases in confidence and optimism between winter 2023 and summer 2024.

All sectors saw optimism and confidence among brokers reach 89% and above, other than buy-to let, which increased from 49% in winter to 65% in summer.

Sedgwick added: "Committing to expanding suggests that intermediary firms feel confident about the future. This is something that our report supports, also highlighting how the brokers we spoke to are now notably more optimistic about various facets of business compared to the start of the year. Having direct relationships with clients, the people who are investing in property, means that brokers have an up-to-date picture of the current strength of the market, so an increase in optimism is an encouraging indicator for the rest of the sector."

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