From shoes to mortgages in a life-changing move
When Aron Engel (pictured) moved out of London to help establish a Jewish community in Southend-on-Sea, he unexpectedly but delightedly discovered a new career as a mortgage broker.
Engel was operating a shoe retail business, before becoming involved in the community endeavor in the Essex coastal location in 2017. Around a hundred families moved to the area over time, and a Jewish school was set up. Before long, those arriving there looked to him and two others leading the venture, Shlomo Fink and David Van Praagh, for help in finding properties, as well as the finance to buy them.
“We came out of London and we opened a new Jewish community and we were involved, getting the community up and running,” Engel told Mortgage Introducer, taking up the story. “There were a lot of people coming from London because of the cheaper house prices. We started getting into the property market and into finance. We became good at it. People asked, ‘Can you do this for us? Can you help us with that?’ We learned quickly, finding properties which were suitable, depending on the size of the families.”
Engel was mentored by Jamie Lewis, founder of Affinity Mortgages in Westcliff-on-Sea, to whom he had taken business from the growing community. He set up DAS Finance in 2021, with Fink and Van Praagh (pictured with him inset above), named after the initials of their first names. It specialises in buy-to-let, commercial, bridging & development, and first-time buyer mortgages, as well as insurance and protection, and second charge loans – ensuring that its lending is consistent with the rules surrounding Jewish lending.
It is evident that Southend-on-Sea was a powerful turning point in Engel’s life. “It was a very good change,” he said. “Southend is a nice place, very friendly - everyone loves use and we love everyone. We're very close, and for some reason there are so many finance companies here!” But even so, was coming to mortgages a little later in life, in his thirties, challenging? “No, no, because I like the challenge,” he explained. “It’s exciting and I’m enjoying it.”
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Supported by the lending community
Engel has been in the UK for 20 years, having been born in Israel and grown up in New York. Clearly, this is not the easiest time for the Jewish community, given the intense interest and strong feelings around the Israel-Gaza conflict, but he is adamant that the industry is nothing but supportive. “I must give it to the finance community, wherever we go, we are treated extremely well,” Engel noted. “We never have issues – the opposite, they all want to try to accommodate us. The lenders know when it’s our Jewish holidays and we’re going to be off. In the Jewish calendar, there's something called Passover, which goes back to when the Jews left Egypt - it's over a week, usually in April, the same time as Easter. One of the rules is that for that whole week, you don’t eat anything with wheat, like bread. What's happened over the years is that because there are strict rules, people have small separate kitchens to keep things separate, so nothing should get confused.”
He continued: “Usually lenders have some sort of criteria, they look badly at two kitchens in a house because it’s like a commercial property, more like an HMO rather than a regular house. This is one of the things where the lenders came in and they wanted to understand, and they took a view and they said, ‘yes, this this is something that you guys need, and why should it be an issue?’ We feel very privileged that the lenders market has been very accommodating, to be honest. So yes, I only have positive things to say.”
Engel and his colleagues have just returned from a highly successful Jewish-based fair, JTrade at the ExCel in London, and he is confident about the future of the business. “It's here to stay - I don't think it's going to go anywhere,” he said. “We’re busy, the demand is here.”
