LJ Hooker Financial Services [LJH FS] has appointed 22 new mortgage brokers in the last two months, following the launch of a recruitment drive in late February to boost its loans writing force.
Thirteen new mortgage brokers have been hired in Queensland, with four hired in Victoria, four in Tasmania and one in South Australia.
Government incentives and low interest rates had contributed to the financial services arm of LJ Hooker recording a 30 per cent increase in lodgement growth in the March quarter, which was fuelling demand for more mortgage brokers, the company said.
"Our recruitment target to the end of the year is 100 mortgage brokers, but this may increase," LJH FS general manager Peter Bromley said.
"We're currently in discussions with a further 14 potential candidates, and while we are looking to recruit nationally, we do have a specific focus on New South Wales and Queensland.
"We're also interested in Victoria-based candidates and are aware of some isolated opportunities in South Australia and Western Australia."
Since the beginning of 2009, LJH FS had been focusing on a number of recruitment strategies to service the increase in business, which had been helped by an internal referral system between the LJ Hooker financial services and real estate businesses, Bromley said.
"There is still more integration between both sides [financial services and real estate] to take place, including the introduction of new office systems which will enable both divisions to access marketing templates and more intuitive customer relationship management systems," Bromley said.
LJH FS offers property loans to those seeking to purchase residential or commercial property, or looking to refinance an existing property loan through its panel of major lenders.
