Aldermore’s bridging exit ‘has no bearing on market conditions’ – Haresnape

Aldermore’s decision to exit the bridging market is solely based on business priorities and has no bearing whatsoever on market conditions. I think there remains great offerings for people requiring bridging facilities, with many smaller, specialised lenders who have focussed on bridging for many years.

Aldermore’s recently published 2016 Interim Accounts confirm that it continues to grow significantly its core mortgage lending which will continue and includes owner occupied mortgages, buy-to-let, commercial lending and property development. As a relatively recent entrant to the bridging market and having a very small market share we took the decision to re-deploy resources and focus on our core lending sectors.

Aldermore continues to have a very diverse source of funding including personal and Small-to-Medium Enterprise (SME) savings and the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). Funding availability played no part in our decision to exit the bridging market which is tiny compared to the very large opportunities across the mortgage and commercial lending markets.

Despite the heightened, political and economic uncertainty, I remain confident about the core lending markets, particularly buy to let, as we know that demand from tenants will continue to be strong due to the shortage of new build and a change in younger generation’s attitudes towards renting. Our appetite and ability to lend in these core sectors remains as high as ever as evidenced by our new limited edition buy to let product allowing landlords to mortgage from 3.18%.