Bridging
West One Loans reports £190m worth of originations in July
Specialist lender West One Loans recorded £190m in originations in July, the most in a single month in its history.
The figure is made up of buy-to-let, second charge, development finance, bridging and residential lending and is up from the previous record of £164m set in March.
The lender has grown assets under management to £2bn, another record for the firm.
The firm said that longer-term lending products, which include buy-to-let, residential and second charge reached £1bn under management for the first time.
Shorter-term products, covering bridging and development finance, “continue to grow strongly” and no specific figures were given.
West One Loans said that it was “confident it can continue lending strongly in the second half of the year, despite volatile market conditions”.
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The company has promoted Matt Watson to head of sales for bridging and buy to let in the South, and Jez Quinn is taking on the role of head of sales for bridging and buy to let in the North.
It has also hired regional account managers for bridging and buy to let, Ashley Bailey for the North and Ashleigh Blackbeard for the South West.
The hires are part of plans to “fuel its ambitious growth targets”.
Danny Waters, chief executive of Enra Specialist Finance, said: “I am very pleased to be able to report record lending figures this month and sustained success through the first half of the year, despite ongoing market volatility.
“West One remains extremely well-capitalised, well-funded, and committed to the specialist lending sector. Our recent performance demonstrates just how robust we are. I believe there is still great opportunity in the market for well-funded specialist lenders despite the current environment.”
He added: “Demand for lending remains high across all elements of our proposition especially in the short-term space.
“We believe we will see our market share grow as we continue to offer a consistent, reliable source of specialist funding to our broker partners through changing market conditions.”