West One Loans aiming for £1bn in short-term lending in 2023

The lender said that it expected bridging and development finance to “drive lending higher as market demand continues to rise”.

The firm said that in the last 12 months to December total completions rose 13 per cent year on year to £915m.

It added that development finance and bridging teams had delivered strong origination levels.

Bridging completions rose 12 per cent year on year and development finance had a 20 per cent rise in completions.

Assets under management for development finance rose 37 per cent and increased by 27 per cent for bridging.

The lender added that it had delivered its highest ever level of originations for buy-to-let and second charge.

Specific figures for origination levels, completion and assets under management were not disclosed.

Bridging and development finance demand high

Tom Cantor, head of bridging at West One Loans, said that demand for bridging lending “remains high across all elements of our proposition”.

“Whether it’s developers looking to bridging finance to exit build projects, homeowners looking for funding to deliver major refurbishment projects, or anything in between West One is ready, willing and able to supply the funding,” he added.

He said that it was one of the few bridging lenders in the market to lend both regulated and unregulated bridging, and the ability to lend up to £30m or more on referral, it could “offer solutions to just about any bridging situation”.

Guy Murray, head of development finance at West One Loans, added that demand for development finance had grown quickly over the past five years and it was “very proud of what we have achieved to date”.

“We have built a short-term lending proposition that provides developers with certainty of finance from site purchase through to development of the site.

“Brokers and their clients have confidence in our products and value the quality service we provide. In a relatively short space of time, we have helped fund hundreds of developments across the UK and lent more than half a billion pounds,” he added.

‘Short-term lending is very important part of business’

Stephen Hogg, chief operating officer at West One, noted that short-term lending was a “very important part of our business” and he was “delighted to report that we lent more than ever before last year”.

“We have set another ambitious target in 2023 and with our hard-won knowledge and experience of lending through different financial cycles, I fully expect us to hit it.

“As a business we are extremely well capitalised, well funded and the recent growth in our short-term lending shows just how robust we are. We look forward to building on the success of the past 12 months and continuing to provide reliable funding for developers and property professionals through all market conditions,” he added.