It’s been an uncertain year in the UK and overseas. Rewind to January and it’s unlikely you’d have predicted the UK would have three prime ministers and four chancellors by Christmas, or that we’d see a ground war in Europe.
It’s also been a year of economic turbulence, as we’ve helped clients deal with eight interest rate rises since December 2021. Mortgage deals have been pulled at short notice, while many clients are seeing their repayments rise when they come to the end of their current deal.
Internally, it’s been another year of positive growth for Altura, so read on to discover how we’ve added a range of new services in 2022 that you can benefit from.
A growing team
As we’ve added new strings to our bow, we’ve welcomed new staff to Altura this year:
- Steven Miller – Steven is one of our senior advisers with over 20 years’ experience in the financial services profession, with the last 18 years spent purely focusing on mortgages. He helps a diverse range of clients to own their own homes and build substantial investment property portfolios.
- Abdul Karimjee – Abdul joined Altura in June 2022 and specialises in working with self-employed business owners, high net worth clients and day-rate contractors, those people who are often outside the norm in terms of acquiring a mortgage.
- Guy Nyirenda – Guy has 22 years’ mortgage broker and financial services experience. For the past 10 years, Guy has been advising on commercial, bridging and development, buy-to-let portfolio and high net worth private banking lending (more in a moment!).
- Roxanne Lawrence – Roxanne provides operational support, interacting with clients, supporting applications, supplying lenders with the information they need and providing progress updates for clients. Roxanne also supports the financial management of the business.
With the team nearly doubling in size in 2022, we’re able to help more clients than ever with their mortgage and secured borrowing needs.
We’ve also widened our range of services in 2022 so you can access more types of specialist lending under one roof.
Specialist and commercial lending
There are many times when the borrowing you need might not tick the standard boxes for a bank or building society. For example, you may be:
- A buy-to-let landlord with a portfolio of properties
- A developer and you want to either build or convert properties into homes
- A client seeking to buy or remortgage a property with a commercial element.
Earlier this year, we welcomed specialist and commercial expert, Guy Nyirenda, to Altura. Having worked in the mortgage sector for 22 years, Guy is a highly experienced specialist and commercial lending expert.
If any element of your borrowing needs is slightly out of the ordinary, Guy’s here to help provide advice and the benefit of his extensive experience.
Equity release
Figures from Canada Life have revealed that the total amount of housing equity available to UK homeowners aged over 55 stood at an estimated £811 billion at the end of June 2022.
To help clients looking to release equity from their homes, specialist Kevin Curtis has joined the Altura team.
Kevin has more than 30 years’ industry experience and has joined the team so that all our clients and their families can benefit from high-quality advice when it comes to releasing capital from their properties in later life.
Joining the Arisaig Circle
We aim to provide the highest quality solutions, whatever your financial needs and wherever life takes you. So, earlier this year, we were delighted to announce the launch of the Arisaig Circle.
The Arisaig Circle is a group of four companies, of which Altura are one, sharing a common goal to delivering high-quality financial solutions to our clients throughout the world.
For you, it means that, as your circumstances evolve, we can now introduce you to a network of trusted partners.
For example, if you have wider financial planning needs, including planning for your retirement, we can introduce you to the expert financial planners at Black Swan Financial Planning.
Equally, if you have assets in Europe or the Far East, or your career is taking you overseas, we’d be delighted to introduce you to David and Ed at Black Swan Capital in Europe or Howard and his team at BMP Wealth in Hong Kong.
This approach means we can now offer a joined-up and holistic solution for all your mortgage and financial planning needs.
5-star home insurance
To further enhance the service you receive, earlier this year we teamed up with Uinsure to provide you with access to five-star rated home insurance. Uinsure are an award-winning insurance provider, and they can offer you a comprehensive home insurance policy at a great price.
Uinsure work with a panel of the leading insurers in the UK, including AXA, LV=, Ageas, RSA, and Zurich and have been rated “five stars” by Defaqto for the quality and comprehensiveness of the features and benefits they provide for both home insurance and landlord home insurance.
To get a quote, simply head to the portal on our website enter all your details and your cover requirements online. Uinsure will then provide you with quotes so you can compare policies from some of the country’s most-trusted insurers.
Ensuring you always receive first-class service
Behind the scenes, we’ve been working hard to ensure our service and proposition aligns with the new “Consumer Duty”. This new Financial Conduct Authority principle requires firms to act to deliver good outcomes for customers and to ensure firms like Altura focus on providing excellent outcomes.
We want to ensure that you receive consistently excellent service and that ensuring great outcomes is at the heart of our business. We want to make sure we fully understand your situation, give you quality and accurate advice, and ensure we use plain English when making recommendations.
We’re committed to the principles of the Consumer Duty and to continually improving the service you receive.
A respected go-to expert for the press
As a respected firm with decades of industry experience, we’re often asked to comment on the mortgage and property market.
This year alone we have appeared in the Express, the i, the Guardian, City AM, IFA magazine, the Mail, Mortgage Solutions, and the Times.
We’ve also appeared on LBC and both the BBC and ITV news. Rob was even interviewed by John Pienaar on Times Radio.
Read more about our press appearances on our website.
News outlets approach Altura as they know that we’re an experience and knowledgeable team, and that we can provide insight and analysis on key current issues.
Looking ahead to continued growth in 2023
After a successful year, we’re hoping to continue our growth and improve the service you receive in 2023.
We’re currently in the process of revamping the Altura website, making it easier for you to access the key information you need. We’re also investing in technology that will help us to interact more regularly with you, keeping you updated about your own affairs and wider news that’s relevant to you.
Finally, as the climate crisis rises up the political agenda, we’re keen to play our part. We’re currently in the early stages of designing a new “green initiative” that will help the business to improve our eco-credentials – more about this to come in 2023.
Get in touch
Thank you to all of our clients and professional connections, and those who have worked with Altura in 2022. We never take our partnership for granted, and we look forward to continuing to provide the excellent service you’ve come to expect in 2023 and beyond.
In the meantime, if you need advice or would like to chat about your current situation, please get in touch. Email [email protected] or call us on +44 (0) 20 3411 0079.
Please note
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loans secured on it.
Buy-to-let (pure) and commercial mortgages are not regulated by the FCA.
Think carefully before securing other debts against your home.
Equity Release will reduce the value of your estate and can affect your eligibility for means-tested benefits.
