Tim Parkes (pictured), chief executive of RAW Capital Partners, said the changes the bridging and specialist buy-to-let (BTL) lender made last year to mark its 10th anniversary set the foundation for this growth.
A pivotal year for the lender
In 2025, RAW Capital Partners increased its loan-to-value (LTV) lending limit from 55% to 70% and entered the UK resident BTL market. The lender will also grow its team, enabling it to “take on and service that business with the same high quality that we’ve done previously,” Parkes said.
Its expansion into the UK market has gone well and the lender has had some “interesting opportunities” come in. Parkes said the decision to expand was driven by requests from brokers, as many asked if the lender could do business it had historically turned away.
He said these included cases where one applicant lived in the UK and the other was located internationally, or two-tier visa holders who are under-served by UK BTL lenders despite there being a population of around 500,000.
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The lender will also consider cases in Scotland, holiday lets, landlords with larger portfolios and borrowers who earn in foreign currencies or have no credit footprint in the UK.
Parkes said there were more opportunities in the UK market than the Channel Islands, and while the lender did not expect like-for-like growth in market share or volume, it believed there were “particular segments of that market that we can serve better than most”.
People like RAW Capital Partners because of its flexibility, Parkes said, as it does not have a tick-box approach, but rather assesses each case on its merits.
“We’ll look at things in the round; the property location, the property type, the property value, the borrower, the borrower structure, [whether that is] a company, [or] a private individual.
“That’s our USP, really, to be a bit more flexible in terms of what we can look at versus what others might be prepared to consider,” Parkes said.
Small starts to national growth
RAW Capital Partners launched in 2015 through its lending fund, competing with mainstream banks and peer-to-peer lenders, focusing on the trust company market in the Channel Islands.
The lender grew steadily from its “small beginnings”, supported by around a dozen brokerage firms that specialised in lending to non-UK residents. RAW Capital Partners found it could continue operating during the pandemic, a time when many borrowers struggled to get a hold of their banks, which created opportunities for the lender.
This accelerated its growth, allowing it to increase the size of its team and its loan book to £100m with the support of investors.
When interest rates started to rise, products became more complex and there was more competition, but the lender saw continued growth and reached the lending £200m milestone at the end of 2025.
“We are now seeking to grow that to £500m as our next milestone. Over the next few years, we see a really solid opportunity to do that, both focused on non-UK residents and the UK resident market. We’re pretty positive about the next few years ahead,” Parkes added.
Technology fuelling growth
The lender’s proposition will remain largely unchanged, but technology will play a key role in its next chapter, speeding up onboarding and automated valuation models (AVMs) to make faster decisions.
RAW Capital Partners already has a decent technology platform that was developed in-house, and this will be used to support this aim.
The technology was first built around 10 years ago and has evolved significantly. It automates interactions with borrowers, solicitors and valuation forms, and later this year, an enhanced version will be launched to integrate with external service providers, enhancing client diligence and the presentation of decisions to the credit committee.
Brokers remain the backbone
Brokers account for 95% of RAW Capital Partners’ lending and will always be core to its business, Parkes said.
The business has increased its footprint in the UK with a team based in London who operate across locations, including places like Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge, which are gaining popularity. Internationally, the lender has developed more relationships in regions such as the Far East and Middle East, and Parkes said it expected to see more of that.
RAW Capital Partners’ reputation had been built on its ability to make fast decisions within 24 hours, and maintain good communication with brokers and borrowers.
Confidence in the UK property market
Parkes said there had been a lot of talk about the pressure on landlords, but that had not impacted the mindset of international borrowers, who still viewed UK property as stable and lucrative.
“There’s always underlying value in that sort of private rental market for non-UK residents. UK residents may think the market is harder than it was, and perhaps it is, but it’s still quite a good market,” Parkes said, adding: “Yields have gone up.”
He said this put the private rental sector in “good stead”, particularly as the government was not building enough social housing to meet tenant needs.
Parkes said bridging was only a small part of its business, but it remained key because of the lender’s ability to move quickly and support urgent cases.
“Quite often, people come to us because they need a quick decision, and that’s just as true in bridging as it is in longer-term lending,” he added.
