33% of brokers spend up to 10 hours a week on non-income generating tasks

Nearly half (47%) of brokers operating in the property and asset finance sector regularly work over 50 hours a week.

Last month, figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that full-time UK employees (between February and April 2017) worked on average 37.5 hours per week.

More than three-quarters (76%) of brokers who took part in the UTB broker sentiment survey indicated that they regularly worked 40 hours or more per week, while 23% estimated that they worked around 56 hours or more in an average week, including time spent working during evenings and weekends.

Average hours brokers work per week:

However, many brokers claimed those extra hours were being used to perform tasks which didn’t drive revenue.

One third (33%) of brokers are spending six to 10 hours per week dealing with issues such as regulation, accounting, staff management and IT/infrastructure.

A further 28% spend more than 10 hours a week on administration rather than business generation.

Average hours brokers spend on non-income generating tasks:

“This survey proves what we already knew; that brokers are working harder than ever to help their clients source and secure the funds they need to invest and grow,” said Harley Kagan, group managing director of UTB (pictured above).

“At UTB, we’ve also had a busy first half of 2017 and we’re no strangers to long hours ourselves.

“Despite the challenges thrown at us by political and economic uncertainty together with an increasing burden of regulation, we’re firmly committed to helping the UK’s smaller housebuilders, property developers and SMEs seize opportunities as they arise.

“By constantly reviewing and improving our processes and employing technology where it can bring real benefit, our aim is to continue to be a reliable and efficient lender helping broker partners to work smarter, not harder.”