Regional cities are growth area for specialist lending – West One

The lender noted that the trend appears to fit with the wider property sector predictions, which expect the London market to remain largely flat or even lose value over the next year as the affordability ceiling is hit.

Meanwhile, cities around the UK are expected to see house prices and housing activity grow noticeably in the next year or two as buyers seek more affordable and better value properties.

West One Loans managing director Stephen Wasserman (pictured) told Specialist Lending Solutions: “The bridging market is shifting away from London somewhat and into the regional cities, reflecting wider property market trends.

“We are seeing a higher volume of smaller transactions and don’t see that changing any time soon.

“This is partly because of the property values being smaller outside London, but also because developers are perhaps doing two smaller deals instead of a single larger one,” he added.

Broker opportunities

This was echoed as a common experience across the specialist sector over the last year.

Finance 4 Business head of distribution Dave Pinnington explained that the broker had found many opportunities outside London in growing regional cities.

The firm had seen particular growth in its home base of Birmingham.

“London has its own economy and even its own lending parameters in a way, but what see now is Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham are growing cities too,” he continued.

“Manchester amazes me with the buildings that pop-up and it’s still a booming city, Liverpool had massive investment when it won capital of culture and that is still a growing city.

“And what Birmingham has done over last five years has massively helped itself and done it on its own – a lot of the funding and development is being done on its own and has its own identity,” he added.