Perfect conditions for developers and landlords with expanding PDRs and funding supply

Speaking on Specialist Lending Solutions Television in association with Roma Finance, Enterprise Finance managing director Harry Landy and Vantage Finance national sales manager Joe Aston, agreed there was likely to be a surge in business in this area.

Discussing the widening possibilities for using PDRs, Aston explained the ease of access would prove very attractive to experienced landlords and developers.

And this could bring new people into the market as well.

“We’re going to see a lot more volume of borrowers looking to do their first development or refurbishment scheme by using the new PDR fast track process,” Aston continued.

“We’re going to see an increase across the board on this.”

‘Perfect storm’

Landy emphasised there were many factors all working together at present making this an attractive market to get into.

“The cost of entry will be cheaper because developers are going to be buying a high street commercial entity which has maybe been vacant for a long time,” he said.

“So purchasing that should hopefully be at a lower point, they can add more value to it and it’s going to be a quicker and easier transition.”

Landy continued: “What we’re seeing as brokers is a wave of products geared towards these refurbishment projects and end values, so it’s almost proving to be a bit of a perfect storm for property developers and landlords.

“They can have access to more properties at a cheaper price, there’s a range of financial products available to specifically cater for these refurbishment projects and then when the work is complete there’s another range of products to help take that development finance out.”

Nick Jones, commercial director at Roma Finance, outlined the changes which have been made this month and agreed with Aston and Landy’s assessments.

“According to the latest figures from Land Registry there’s certainly a big lift in these types of applications and we’re certainly feeling a lot of those applications at Roma Finance,” he said.

This discussion was filmed before Nick Jones left Roma Finance this week.