Bridging
Together hits £103m bridging lending high in April
Together has announced it provided £103.6m in short-term commercial loans during April, the highest for the lender.
This comprised more than 260 bridging loans over the month. The value was a 17 per cent increase on its previous record of £88m in July last year.
The company said the record lending was in part due to larger loan sizes upwards of £5m, as well as the use of technology which sped up transactions.
Sundeep Patel (pictured), director of sales at Together, said the demand for short-term finance was “continuing to soar across the industry” despite global and financial uncertainties.
He said because traditional lenders were tightening criteria and “scaling back,” the demand from potential clients such as SMEs and developers was growing.
The lender currently has a loan book of £4.4bn, which Patel said was its “largest ever”. He also said Together was seeing a rise in application numbers and had a strong pipeline for unregulated bridging products.
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Additionally, advances made to its technology now allow the lender to use automated valuation models on the majority of its loans, meaning the process is quicker and cheaper.
He added: “It’s clear that bridging finance has taken up an invaluable role in the commercial finance brokers’ toolkit, allowing them to support clients achieve their property ambitions.”