Mike Pero Mortgages sees positive signs

Mike Pero Mortgages sees some signs of a bottom being reached in home sale volumes but with a significant recovery more likely to be a year away.

Both the new chief executive for MPM Shaun Riley, formerly of Geneva Finance and recently departed chief executive Sandra Pigram agree there have been some positive signs for the broking business.

Pigram has returned to her Australian homeland because of family reasons and will take on consulting roles in the wider mortgage industry, with Riley ready to take on her strategy of diversifying the MPM business.

Under Pigram, MPM owned in a joint venture by Melbourne's Liberty Financial and New Zealand Finance Holdings has diversified into insurance, financial products and a KiwiSaver option.

"The brokers toolkit now is virtually a full financial service product ... they obviously like that because they can touch more people more times, and it actually travels through the life cycle of the customer," Pigram said.

The group is a 46-franchise chain, including a new Rotorua office, and had seen no attrition of offices while rival mortgage broking groups had lost up to 30 per cent of their distribution, Pigram said.

She had tried to continue the chief executive's role while spending time in both Australia and New Zealand but in tougher industry times had decided to discontinue that strategy.

The next month or two of business would really determine where the bottom of the mortgage industry was, Pigram said. But the last couple of months had shown flat trading and "we're certainly hearing the murmurings from customers starting to look (for homes)," she added.

"There's definitely activity, and another interest rate cut will possibly spark a bit more."

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was next due to review the official cash rate as part of a monetary policy statement on September 11, with most if not all economists expecting a 25 basis point cut to 7.75 per cent from 8 per cent now.

Riley said it was an opportune time to take on the role given that growth would eventually return to the market and he would be working with a brand with a range of products. The health of the home sale market would become clearer ahead, he agreed.

"Certainly feedback that I've had is in the past few weeks we've just seen a bit more activity in the market, but is that a result of coming out of winter or the market improving, I guess it's too early to tell.

"I think we're under no illusions that it's going be another year to 18 months before things really start to hum again."