Aspen Bridging hits £500m lending milestone

Aspen Bridging’s heavy refurbishment product accounts for the largest share of its business, representing 36 per cent of deals worth £185m.

Its no-valuation product, which was launched to complete cases in 10 days or less, accounted for 21 per cent of deals at a total value of £101m.

Aspen Bridging’s development exit bridges made up 17 per cent of its business and stand at a value of £94m. Within this division, the lender’s no-minimum-interest feature and low-stepped-rate product were the most popular among borrowers. 

The remaining 24 per cent of its lending, worth £120m, was taken up by commercial loans, buy-to-let (BTL) purchases and refinances for capital raising. 

Around £40m of this was lent through Aspen Bridging’s bridge-to-let product. 

Since launching, the lender’s largest bridge loan was £8.2m, while the average finance provided is £735,000. Its fastest time to fund was two days, and more than half of its deals are completed in less than a month from the submission of an application, the lender said. 

Ed Ahrens, CEO of Aspen Bridging, said: “This is a remarkable achievement, and at the outset I want to thank all our introducers and our amazing staff who have been with us on this journey so far.” 

“To go from a standing start to where we are today is a huge success story. We will continue to innovate, and rest assured, we will lend the next half a billion pounds a lot quicker,” added managing director of Aspen Bridging, Jack Coombs (pictured). 

Some 193 broker firms have completed cases with the lender on properties spanning 45 counties across both England and Wales. 

The lender has 25 full-time employees, with many of these joining through its graduate recruitment scheme. It most recently appointed Rory Cleary as its head of sales and, last year, Aspen Bridging grew its team through promotions and graduate hires.