A very warm hello and happy new year from the Oportfolio team! Goodbye to 2021.
We hope that the holiday period was fun and that you and your families had a wonderful time seeing out the year together in some way shape or form. We also hope that you have finally recovered from the new year hangover! 2021 was really an incredible year, not just for the financial services sector but for the world at large and 2022 is set to be even better. Coming out of 2020, possibly the most shocking year in living memory, many of us had no idea what to expect in 2021 and unfortunately many of us predicted a continuation of the previous year. Last year we saw the return of the Tokyo Olympics with Great Britain taking home a very respectable 65 medals.
We saw Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Virgin’s Richard Branson and SpaceX’s Elon Musk race against each other to launch the first privately owned manned space mission (We also saw William Shatner blast in to orbit) and we also saw the COP26 climate change conference taking place in Glasgow which saw many major world economies such as The EU, China and Japan pledging carbon neutrality by 2050.
The financial services world also saw a lot of changes in 2021 as the economy started moving and specifically buyers and remortgagers returned to the market after an unpredictable 2020. Oportfolio had a great 2021 and Managing Director Oliver Whitehead can’t express his pride enough:
“Oportfolio had another fantastic year in business in 2021, buoyed by the property market that surprisingly boomed in lockdown. As we spent more enforced time at home our space, location and, where we live became a premium. More of our clients looked to move out of London or buy second homes to have some living space out of the city.
Interest rates remained at record lows, so borrowing remained cheap, which encouraged our clients to get lending at very low levels and make investments at a higher return. We did a lot of remortgages and product transfers for our Oportfolio clients, locking them into much lower rates and reducing monthly mortgage outgoings, as well as releasing capital for additional home Improvements.
As well as doing over £200 million of mortgage lending, Oportfolio protected a lot of families. This was perhaps the most rewarding part of the work we did in 2021 because if one of our loyal clients were to pass away or get a cancer, or just be ill and unable to work, there is a suitable financial contingency in place. If the worst happens it’s very important to us that suitable due diligence has been done for all our clients and that they are not placed in positions of financial exposure.”
Looking towards the next 12 months, Oliver is excited about continuing Oportfolio’s work with local charities and building and developing a strong relationship with the entire Oportfolio team:
“We continue to work closely with our chosen charity ‘Shelter’, supporting London and the UK’s rough sleepers as well as looking to house those in disadvantaged positions and we hope to be able to do more to raise awareness for this fantastic organisation. We have several initiatives planned for 2022 and will continue to offer support to those that need it as an additional but core part of what we do.
As a team at Oportfolio we have seen two new members join us in 2021 and we continue to bond and grow, feeling that we are well placed to expand in 2022 and grow our client base significantly. Our main focus is going to be looking after our clients in 2022 and beyond and we are employing a Client Services Manager to help support us with that in February.
We want to look after more people in all areas managing and helping them grow their current portfolios and making sure that they are operating in the most efficient way. As a company, we pride ourselves on offering a client journey that is second-to-none. Our testimonials reflect that, and happy clients refer and recommend us and for that we are very grateful.
We are all very motivated to do great things in 2022 and look forward to being on hand for all your mortgage and protection needs.”
The Oportfolio team hope you all had a great 2021 and we look forward to working with you all in any way we can to make sure that all your mortgage and protection needs are met so that you and your family can have a fantastic 2022 and beyond.
