Galashiels mortgage company proves it is simply the best

Borders Mortgage Hub only re-located to 37 Bank Street in January 2019.

But its short tenure in the region has not prevented it landing the title of Best Broker for Dumfires and the Borders at the recent Scottish Mortgage Awards, staged at The Balmoral in Edinburgh.

Particularly pleasing for company director Robin Purdy was the fact it was votes from the public that enabled the firm to get onto a short-list of nominees.

Borders Mortgage Hub prides itself on putting its clients first and has a walk-in policy at its premises in Galashiels.

Robin said: “We’re independent mortgage brokers and first and foremost we put the client front and centre. We are very client service orientated.

"We were fortunate that when Covid came along we are in an industry that wasn’t badly affected and were able to work away remotely, while it was obviously very good when restrictions were lifted and we were able to get together again to work in the premises and open the door to the public again.

"The awards work in that a public nomination takes you on to a long list and then it’s public voting that takes you on to a short-list, and once you are on a short-list it’s down to the votes of the judges.

"I’m led to believe that we had quite a lot of public votes to take us from the long list to the short-list, which must have carried some sway in the eyes of the judges.

"It’s a great boost for the company. It was almost as pleasing to go from the long list to the short-list because that’s what the public vote on, but it’s nice to be recognised and hopefully it’s a fair reflection what we do for our clients.

"We are cautiously optimistic for the future. This industry has not been badly impacted by Covid, it’s the opposite because the housing market has seen a big bounce on the back of the first lockdown and we have been fortunate to benefit from that. Now we will have to wait to see how the world settles in the next year. We have a large and loyal client bank that revisit us and refer us to people, so our growth is organic and is largely based on word of mouth. I’d like to think that even in an economic downturn that would see us through.”

The company changed its name and re-located to the Borders almost three years ago.

Before that the firm was called Mov8 Financial and had been based in Edinburgh since 2011.

Robin added: “I’m from the Borders hence the move and the name re-brand. I saw there was a gap in the market for the way we do things, which is a shop front, a walk-in policy. We are here on the high street, effectively. Since we’ve moved here we have employed two local Borders people.

"I chose Galashiels because I wanted it to be somewhere central and this premises seemed like a good fit. It had been a fruit and veg shop but it had stood empty for two years, so we put it back into use.”