"The role of mortgage professionals has never been more important when it comes to understanding the individual needs of each buyer on a much deeper level"
- Richard Merrett - Alexander Hall
Alexander Hall's rebrand has been driven in no small part by Richard Merrett, who was brought back to the business as managing director at the start of the year by Foxtons CEO, Guy Gittins.
Merrett’s previous experience working for Alexander Hall means that he already understood the history and culture of the business, as well as the firm’s reputation for providing comprehensive training to help nurture new talent within the mortgage sector.
Merrett’s return came with the tantalising opportunity to reestablish the Alexander Hall brand and what it stands for, mirroring the process that Guy Gittins implemented across the wider Foxtons brand on his return as CEO.
Upon his return, Merrett identified the need for the Alexander Hall brand to better reflect the 'above-and-beyond' approach adopted by its team on a daily basis and focus on building strong relationships with clients whilst they undertake one of the most significant, emotional and stressful endeavours in life - purchasing a home.
This is a connection that has become all the more important in recent times as buyers have struggled in an increasingly volatile property landscape.
MD of Alexander Hall, Richard Merrett, (pictured) commented: “Following the seismic impact that resulted from the Truss Mini Budget in 2022, the mortgage sector has weathered what has proven to be an extremely challenging period and, whilst the worst is hopefully behind us, the needs of today’s borrowers remain more complex than they’ve arguably ever been.
"Naturally, this means that the role of mortgage professionals has never been more important when it comes to understanding the individual needs of each buyer on a much deeper level.
"It’s about so much more than simply offering mortgage advice and we place a great deal of focus on providing the support required as they undertake the massively emotional journey of purchasing a home
"This is where we believe our renowned reputation and outstanding team allows us to add real value and this has enabled us to weather the storm better than most.”
"The good news for the mortgage market as a whole is that the outlook going forward is wholly more positive. We have a new Government, and inflation has finally dipped below the target of 2% for the first time in over three and a half years, with the view now being that interest rates should start to subside.
"This impending market positivity will only help fuel the momentum that has come following the initial hold on interest rates in September of last year and the first reduction in four years seen in August - both of which have seen stability improve and caused mortgage rates to come down.
"It’s these improving market conditions that have spurred Alexander Hall to go live with its rebrand, although Merrett acknowledges that it remains a competitive and cluttered market.
Merrett continued: “We’ve been patiently waiting for market confidence to improve and for rates to reduce before we launched our rebrand, as we wanted to take advantage of improving market sentiment to power our ambitious growth strategy for the business.
"Of course, there remains a wealth of choice for homebuyers when it comes to mortgage providers and advisers but we truly believe that we stand out from the rest and we pride ourselves on being the trusted, objective adviser, providing sound and rational recommendations at a highly emotional time for people.
"It’s about people realising their property-owning dreams, our people provide the best advice to make that happen and our 5-star Trustpilot rating showcases the incredible experience we provide.
"We have already made some significant changes to our model, with a huge focus on people, using data and expanding on our existing lead pipeline. Our new brand platform simply articulates why we are different to our competitors, which is not only important for our customers, but for our people too. We hope that in acknowledging the great work they do we can encourage more mortgage professionals to join us, as we look to pursue our ambitions for further growth.”
