The Mortgage Centres

The Mortgage Centres: whole-of-market mortgage advice across the UK

The Mortgage Centres is a UK mortgage brokerage that presents itself as a whole-of-market intermediary, meaning it is not tied to any single bank or building society and can draw on products from multiple lenders. The firm states that its advisers are CeMAP accredited and that the business is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for protection, residential mortgages and general insurance business. It describes itself as established for over 25 years and lists free initial advice and a personal service among its operating principles.

The brokerage works with clients wherever they live in the UK and frames its activity around three common situations: moving house, remortgaging and buying a first property. Alongside those mainstream cases it maintains dedicated lines of advice for borrowers whose circumstances fall outside standard lender criteria.

Specialist mortgage categories handled

The service range is organised by borrower profile rather than by product alone. The site sets out the following areas:

• Bad credit and adverse credit mortgages, aimed at applicants whose credit history would normally complicate an application.
• Self-employed mortgages, covering sole traders, contractors and company directors whose income does not follow a standard salaried pattern.
• Buy-to-let mortgages for property investors, including help with lender criteria and portfolio growth.
• Skilled worker mortgages for holders of a Skilled Worker Visa, addressing lender criteria that apply to visa holders.
• First-time buyer mortgages and remortgaging.
• Joint mortgages, second home mortgages, Right to Buy mortgages, shared ownership mortgages and equity release mortgages.

Beyond mortgages, the footer of the site also references insurance and secured loans among the services offered.

Tools and resources for borrowers

The brokerage publishes a set of online calculators intended to give applicants an initial idea of their position before speaking to an adviser. These include a mortgage affordability calculator, a bad credit mortgage calculator, a buy-to-let mortgage calculator, a self-employed mortgage calculator and a remortgage calculator. The resources section adds guides on mortgage affordability and mortgage applications, a frequently asked questions section and a page of latest mortgage rates. The site also offers downloadable documents.

Branch network

The Mortgage Centres operates a network it describes as 43 branches, spread across London and the south-east, East Anglia, the Midlands, the north of England and the south coast. Named locations include a London Mortgage Centre and offices in Needham Market, Ipswich, Woodbridge, Felixstowe, Leiston, Stowmarket, Norwich, Lowestoft, Thetford, Sudbury, King's Lynn, Great Yarmouth, Diss, Bury St. Edmunds, Watford, Peterborough, Luton, Colchester, Chelmsford, Cambridge, Braintree, Milton Keynes, Slough, Southampton, Reading, Portsmouth, Oxford, Brighton, Northampton, Solihull, Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Leeds, Gloucester, Bournemouth, Bristol and Manchester. Client feedback quoted on the site refers specifically to advisers at the Needham Market branch.

Client feedback and response times

The site displayed a rating of 4.98 out of 5 based on 966 reviews at the time of drafting this profile, with individual comments describing prompt replies, clear communication by phone and email, and repeat use of the brokerage for both residential and buy-to-let cases. The firm states that its team aims to respond to enquiries within 24 hours and provides a callback request form as an alternative to phoning.

Regulatory position

The Mortgage Centres states that it is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for protection, residential mortgages and general insurance business, and points readers to the FCA Register for confirmation. Its published material carries the standard warning that a home may be repossessed if repayments on a mortgage are not kept up.