Bridging
Bridging completions sink 13 per cent in Q1 – ASTL
The value of completions in the first three months of 2019 dropped by 13.1 per cent to £898.5m compared to the first quarter of last year.
However, borrowers applied for bridging loans worth a total of more than £5.96bn in the period, up by 13.6 per cent from the previous three months.
This was also up by 6.9 per cent from the same period in 2018, according to the latest data from the Association for Short Term Lenders (ASTL).
Bridging lender loan books rose in value by 7.9 per cent from the final three months of last year to £4.14bn.
However, this was down by 1.2 per cent on an annual basis.
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Benson Hersch, chief executive officer of the ASTL, described the results as a “mixed bag”.
He said: “For completions, this was the lowest result since Q3 2017. On the other hand, the loan book total is the highest since Q1 2018 and the applications were the highest ever.
“We would expect this high value of completions to result in improved completions in Q2 2019.”