Online mortgage broker Habito turned its first monthly profit in September

Just five months into his leadership of online mortgage broker Habito, new CEO Ying Tan during an internal company meeting on Friday announced the company turned a monthly profit in September for the first time ever.

On writing on LinkedIn today Tan said he was “ecstatic” to announce the news, and that “for context in 2022 our average monthly loss was £897,000 and for the first five months in 2023 it was £385,000!”.

Tan arrived at the company in September after founder and former CEO Daniel Hegarty quit in June, he arrived as part of a funding round of an undisclosed amount that came from the fintech’s existing investors plus Tan as a new “significant shareholder” in Habito.

“Whilst I had a lot of support publicly (which is truly appreciated) when I took on the role as CEO in May and invested a significant amount of my own money. The naysayers and detractors in private have been quite prolific,” Tan added on LinkedIn.

The CEO said he believes that “whilst the business has needed tweaking and adjustments….. the fundamental foundation is extremely solid.”

After starting out as an online mortgage broker, Habito launched its own conveyancing service, Habito Plus, and even its own long-term mortgages, Habito One.

In the wake of the UK’s mini-budget in 2022 Habito was forced to withdraw its Habito One product as rates soared and the UK property market stalled.