Secured loans growth set to continue

Only Loans indicated that rising debt levels and an increase in the number of people opting to become self-employed had led to an upturn in secured loans – a market that the lender indicated would grow by a further 5 per cent by the end of 2008.

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Ian Durrell, business development manager at Only Loans, expected consumer interest in the market to expand over the next 18 months, fuelled by changing personal circumstances.

He said: “The market for unsecured loans is saturated, and we believe that more consumers will look to consolidate their borrowing and struggle to prove income due to changing employment circumstances, triggering a surge in demand for secured loans.”

As a result of the growing interest in the market, Only Loans has enhanced its customer relationship management (CRM) enabling third party partners to log on to the system and track their clients application, in addition to branding the system to meet their individual demands.

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Roy New, a London-based sole trader, said: “The knowledge of secured loans is not there in the public. But it’s slowly getting there because the knowledge has to come from brokers talking to clients, and broker awareness is slowly awakening. But there’s still a lot of anti-second charge feeling within the broker society. However, we should see growth in the secured loans sector.”