Bridging lenders lose faith in UK’s long-term economic prospects

The research carried out by the Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL) found that the number of lenders feeling positive about the outlook for the UK economy had dropped from 84% after the Summer Budget to 38% following this year’s announcement.

Meanwhile, 90% of lenders were found to be confident about their own prospects. They predicted their own business volumes would increase over the next 12 months. However, this tailed off when they considered the bridging market as a whole with only 71% predicting that the market would continue to grow.

Benson Hersch, chief executive of the ASTL, said: “While our latest sentiment survey is still overwhelmingly positive, there has been a real shift in how positively our bridging lenders view the outlook for the economy – people are noticeably more uncertain about it than they were at this time last year following the general election. Even following the Summer Budget, 84% of our members then said that they felt positive about the long-term future of the UK economy, this has dropped to 38% with 19% feeling negative.”

He added: “No doubt the prospect of Britain leaving the EU is causing much of this uncertainty. There are unchartered waters ahead and, whether it is better or worse for the UK to leave the EU, no-one can really say with any degree of certainty.”

The survey found that 47% of bridging lenders felt that the uncertainty over whether the UK will leave the European Union will also affect the bridging market.