How I spotted a profitable niche in the mortgage market

Dave Symondson started selling specialist mortgage products to cash-strapped borrowers through his start-up business MD Nationwide - a risky strategy that paid off.

Dave Symondson now 45 had a front row seat as Britain's home loan market boomed in the late 1990s. He was the lending manager at a financial services firm. "Credit was easily available, house prices were soaring and everyone was desperate to get onto the property ladder."

Nonetheless, Symondson felt "most of the money was going to other people". So he teamed up with a former colleague, Nick Clark, to launch a new mortgage firm.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.