Speaking to this publication, Adam Tyler (pictured), chief executive of the BDLA, said: “The big takeaway is we are on the cusp of getting much bigger. My predecessors have done an excellent job getting it to this point of 100 members and now on the cusp of actually growing to 150 or 200 members. That’s the biggest thing for me is making sure we manage that in the right way, in making sure the support is behind it.”
He noted that the trade body had had 12 lender enquiries to join in January alone and it had no target number of members.
Tyler has had long experience with trade associations, starting to run the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) in 2005, then being involved with FIBA for around eight years. He was also part of the steering committee for the BDLA when it was launched in 2008.
He took on the role of chief executive at the tail end of last year, taking over from Vic Jannels.
“All of the lenders that I now look after, I’ve all seen come to market. So, for me, running the BDLA is full circle. All the people that I was on the other side of the fence with, I introduced them to brokers… to grow. I’m now sort of looking after them, so it’s not completely alien to me.
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“I’ve also worked within bridging lenders and help[ed] them fundraise and do other things, so I’ve seen it from all sides and effects,” he noted.
Tyler said the “core function” of the BDLA was to make sure the bridging and development finance community is represented where it needs to be represented.
He noted that a “starting point” is working with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), so the “first objective for me is to make sure that that work continues”. One example is current consultation on the regulated bridging term limit.
“My objective is to continue working with the regulator and really just to make sure that that relationship [with] the regulator grows and continues and we represent bridging development,” he added.
Tyler said it would continue to work on and “grow” its fraud early warning system, which was launched last year.
Another focus will be data collection, which will include getting data collection on loan books and lending in faster so there is a more accurate snapshot of market activity.
Tyler said the data “gives us a steer on where we need to be acting” and insight into potential trends not just in bridging but across to residential and was a useful resource for the funding community.
For instance, if there is a rise in regulated bridging, this could imply it is being used for chain break, so the residential market is slowing down.
Tyler said he was going to start industry forums, where lenders, brokers, solicitors and valuers would come together in a “boardroom style” and talk about what is happening at the coalface.
This will give them insights into trends, opportunities and challenges that the sector is facing across the piece, he said.
2025 ‘good year’ for bridging and development finance but ‘harder’
Tyler said 2025 was a “good year” for bridging and development finance, but it was “harder”.
“It was hard to get the deals drawn down, and that can be steered by government activity as people were waiting for clarity on the Autumn Budget,” he noted.
He said 2024 showed greater growth as it was coming off a “low base” of 2023, so 2025 was more of a plateauing.
Looking ahead at opportunities, he said trying to help the government meet its ambitious housebuilding targets was key, as bridging and development finance could help.
However, the UK hasn’t got enough tradespeople or SME housebuilders who focus on 4-6 houses, so a focus would be getting funding to the smaller housebuilders and developers. This can be done with more collaboration with trade bodies like the Property Developers Association.
Technology will also have a key role as the “origination of business and introduction of business is changing”, and encouraging the industry to embrace modernisation.
“There’s only a few lenders that… have got the API capability. It’s out there, the sourcing tools have got it and it’s getting them [specialist lenders] to embrace that and have applications API’d into them. Then that same way, you can use the API to update the sourcing tool, as if you change your rates and you try and do that manually for every single bridge, that’s difficult,” he explained.
Key opportunities will be semi-commercial and development finance
Looking ahead for the year, Tyler said key opportunities would be semi-commercial properties and ground-up development finance.
He noted that the rise in semi-commercial business was due to landlords diversifying their portfolios as well as those pulling out of the market and selling the premises to the business owner.
On the ground-up development finance side, he said there weren’t enough lenders in that space so there were opportunities for lenders.
Ground-up development finance needs more expertise in lenders and in the broker community, Tyler noted.
“It’s a lot more complex because you’ve also got to use monitoring surveyors and things like that in the process. It could be fraught with more problems than just converting a building into flats. It’s certainly an area of opportunity for some lenders if they want to explore different areas of the bridging market,” he added.
Regarding challenges, he said it was ensuring that bridging loans have the “right kind of exit”, especially those that are refinancing.
CPSP has had ‘huge successes’ and is looking at ‘next innovation’
When asked about the Certified Practitioner of Specialist Property Finance (CPSP), which was launched in 2023 in association with FIBA and the London Institute of Banking & Finance, Tyler said it now has around 1,600 people who have registered or taken it since it was launched with 650 people who have passed.
Tyler said there had been “huge successes” with the scheme and it was “looking at the next innovation of that”, which would focus on wider education of the industry.
This would look at how people who are coming into the industry “learn from the very beginning rather than having to learn on the job”.
