New lender Commercial First is to make an assault into the commercial market with a targeted lending figure of £300m in its first year.
The company ‘ set up by Martin Finegold and David Johnson who were behind the launch of sub-prime lender Kensington ‘ expects the organisation to start lending at the end of November.
Johnson said lending would be capped at 80% of the property value in question with interest rates calculated to a margin over base rate. He expected interest rates on initial loans to be around 8%.
Johnson said: ‘Commercial First is not looking to get into the buy-to-let market, but concentrating on providing for owner-occupier run businesses.’
Commercial First has chosen sub-prime packager Olympian Financial as its launch partner to help promote its products to the market.
Mel Fordham, managing director for Olympian Financial, said: ‘The products are attractive and long overdue. I am sure they will make a major impression among packagers, intermediaries and borrowers.’