Double New Business By Starting Mortgages

Sub-prime, specialist mortgage provider, Start Mortgages, has reported a 100pc rise in new business, its UK parent, Kensington Mortgages said.

The company would not provide exact figures but industry sources say Start will have lent E618 million in the year to the end of November 2006, according to a report in the Irish Times.

Start has been operating in the Irish "sub-prime" or "specialist" market for two years, catering for borrowers who have difficulty obtaining loan approval elsewhere due to poor credit histories or being self-employed.


Paul Murphy, head of sales and marketing at Start, said the specialist market is currently worth about E1 billion annually.

"We would estimate that we have the lion's share of that," he said. "There are two players in the Irish market at the moment - ourselves and GE Money."

Mr Murphy describes the market as "embryonic", and he anticipates huge growth in the coming years.

He estimates that the market has the potential to be worth E3 billion to E4 billion a year.>