Short-term lender Glenhawk enters specialist market with buy-to-let ambitions

The lender has £30m of its own capital to lend and is set to begin discussions with banks and other funders to extend this and potentially branch into longer term buy-to-let finance.

It is offering funding for bridging, auction, refurbishment, development and commercial finance projects across the country and open to offers from all interested brokers.

Glenhawk CEO and founder Guy Harrington (pictured) told Specialist Lending Solutions that although the lender has set a guideline of between £300,000 and £5m for loan values, it will consider smaller deals if they are not administratively complex or demanding.

It has also removed initial upfront fees and early repayment charges from its products, asking for a minimum three-month loan term instead. Rates will begin at 0.5%.

Smaller funding amounts

The lender went live with its offering last week and is currently working on seven potential deals.

“We had so many enquiries come through it’s exciting but slightly terrifying, and having been a property developer it’s interesting to be on the other side,” Harrington said.

“We are looking at all sorts of lending and seeing what comes through the door – it’s been mostly development finance and auction purchases so far.”

Brokers have been urging lenders to make funding more accessible for smaller and lower value projects and this has been recognised by Glenhawk.

“Our guideline minimum value is £300,000 but it can be can be a smaller loan, perhaps £100,000, or niche asset,” Harrington continued.

“Providing the administration is not too complex or restrictive we will consider it.”

Growth plans

Although the lender has barely been operating for a week, it has notable plans to grow.

“We’ve got £30m of our own capital to deploy over the next eight weeks or so, but we’re going to begin discussions with banks or funding lines to increase our product range. From that we would like to introduce longer term buy-to-let medium term products for home owners,” he said.

Joining Harrington in the business as managing director is Paul McFadyen and director of lending Nick Hilton.

McFadyen was former UK managing director of Regis Group, while Hilton has lent over £300m across both residential and commercial bridging since 2008.

The firm is also backed by non-executive director Harry Hill who was a founder of Rightmove and former CEO of Countrywide.