Mortgage Advice Bureau (LSE:MAB1) delivered a resilient first-half performance in 2026, with mortgage completions increasing 16% to approximately £16.5 billion and revenue rising 8% to around £160 million despite subdued consumer confidence and continued volatility across the UK mortgage market. The company expanded its share of both new mortgage lending and product transfer activity, although a greater mix of remortgages and product transfers, together with slower growth in protection policy sales, limited margin expansion. As a result, adjusted pre-tax profit remained broadly unchanged at £14.6 million, while average revenue per mainstream adviser was stable.
Acquisition integration expected to support second-half performance
Management reported continued progress integrating businesses acquired during late 2025, with anticipated cost synergies and improved operating leverage expected to strengthen earnings in the second half and beyond.
Although mortgage application volumes eased towards the end of the first half and the market continues to be driven largely by refinancing rather than house purchases, the board reiterated its expectation of delivering full-year results in line with market forecasts. Confidence is supported by a substantial pipeline of fixed-rate mortgage maturities, initiatives to improve adviser productivity, efforts to increase protection sales and an expectation that profitability will be more heavily weighted towards the second half of the year.
Strong fundamentals offset by valuation and technical headwinds
Mortgage Advice Bureau’s outlook continues to benefit from solid financial performance, including revenue growth, strong returns on equity, modest leverage and healthy cash generation. However, the shares remain under technical pressure, trading below key moving averages with negative momentum indicators. Investors are also weighing a relatively premium valuation of around 26.5 times earnings, although the stock continues to offer a dividend yield of approximately 3.2%.
About Mortgage Advice Bureau
Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) plc is one of the UK’s leading property finance intermediaries, providing technology-enabled mortgage and protection advice through a nationwide network of more than 2,100 advisers. The group connects consumers, advisers, lenders and insurers through its intermediary platform while supporting partner firms with proprietary technology, compliance services, recruitment, digital marketing and expertise across residential mortgages, specialist lending, protection and general insurance.
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