Google to close online mortgage site

Google-parent Alphabet could have posed a threat to mortgage brokers with its online offering, after all the internet giant is well placed to dominate online searches for mortgage products. However, it has announced that it is pulling out of the business after just a year.

Although it had not come to Canada, the Google Compare service was launched in the US and UK last year offering comparisons between mortgage lenders, insurers and credit card companies with Google picking up commission from the referrals. The firm has now said that the service will end on March 23, writing in an email to its partners that the service “hasn’t driven the success we hoped for.”

While Google may have dropped out of the industry for now, some experts predict that it will still want a slice of the market and may return once it has sorted out some issues with its first try, not least the lack of some major mortgage lenders on the site.

More Mortgage Guide