Savills' site targets home loan seekers

Britain's second largest mortgage broker, Savills Private Finance, is aiming to write £600m a year in loan business over the internet with the launch next month of netmortgage.co.

The separately branded website is aimed at challenging the growing charcolonline business, which produces around £35m in loan applications a month for John Charcol.

Netmortgage.co will go live next month but the main advertising thrust will not begin until May. Mark Harris, director of Savills Private Finance, said: "We see it as something that could quickly grow to equal the current size of SPF, which broked £600m in residential mortgages last year. We have taken longer to get it up and running compared to charcolonline or e-loan, but we plan to deliver something with wider choice. We aim to have around 200 different lenders with mortgage products on the site."

Charcolonline launched only three months ago but is enjoying around 1m page impressions per month. Two weeks ago Bradford & Bingley paid £100m for John Charcol, citing its net business as the principal factor behind the deal. Savills Private Finance is a subsidiary of property consultancy FPD Savill.

Research this week by eloan.com, the biggest online mortgage lender in the world, revealed that 40% of British homebuyers would be prepared to arrange their mortgage through the internet.