Crystal Specialist Finance sees record-breaking Q1

The majority of loans processed by the distributor were for bridging finance at 35% followed by buy-to-let at 26% and commercial deals at 24%.

Application numbers rose by 4% to 1,074 on a like-for-like basis in the first quarter of 2024 despite the tough economic conditions.

The number of these applications has almost doubled from 579 in 2020 to 1,074 over the past five years.

The finance distributor predicts it is on course to surpass £1.2bn worth of loan applications this year.

Closer broker working relationships

Crystal says its strong growth partly results from repeat business, with the average number of deals per broker rising to 4.45 in the first three months of 2024 compared to 2.9 over the same period in 2023.

Jo Breeden (pictured), managing director of Crystal Specialist Finance, said: “This is an outstanding start to 2024 and we’re actively targeting growth at every opportunity.

“Our continued success is testament to the excellent Crystal team and their desire to always deliver an outstanding customer outcome.

“Our desire to educate intermediaries – both mainstream and specialist – on the myriad financial solutions for literally every customer requirement has also played a hugely significant part in the numbers and will continue to remain front-and-centre of our market proposition.”