Stonebridge has revealed it processed over £1bn worth of mortgage applications during September.

The mortgage and insurance network said that its member firms placed more than 5,600 lending applications during the month – a figure up 19% year-on-year.

At the end of August, Stonebridge’s year-to-date lending volumes were also up by 7% on the same period in 2019.
 
The network suggested its appointed representative (AR) firms were continuing to “maximise the opportunities” presented by strong mortgage market conditions, including the post-lockdown boost in demand as well as the impact of the stamp duty holiday announced in July.

“We’re very pleased to see a continuance of our AR firms’ excellent mortgage and protection results which have been progressing well ahead of forecast, since the first lockdown was eased back in May,” commented Stonebridge chief executive, Rob Clifford.
 
“Mortgage application numbers are performing particularly strongly, and our completion levels continue to grow every week. In that sense, it has been an excellent recovery and we anticipate this will continue to strengthen particularly over the next two quarters.
 
“The ongoing support we are able to offer firms extends into proactively helping them to recruit more advisers in order to meet demand and their own firm’s growth ambitions, and again we have seen excellent levels of organic growth within firms, with the majority of new Stonebridge advisers joining our existing members.

Stonebridge also announced that by the end of September, the network’s total adviser headcount had risen to 733, with 13 new starters recruited by existing AR firms using the support of Stonebridge’s recruitment team. Since the start of the year, 59 advisers have been recruited by existing Stonebridge member firms.
 
Clifford added: “Market growth is currently accelerating the recruitment success of our members, however, our recruitment and business support teams are able to help them with their short, medium and long-term plans, plus how they get the best advisers and what they should be considering when looking at increasing the size and shape of their business.”

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