The bridge-to-let loans are available for £75,000 to £750,000 up to 12 months, with a maximum loan to value of 75 per cent and a monthly rate of 0.6 per cent.

The product is intended for light refurbishment of residential properties including homes in multiple occupancy up to a maximum of six bedrooms.

“With the second anniversary of our buy-to-let product launch in sight, we are exploring how to add value for our borrowers when building their portfolios. The bridge to let product provides the flexible finance that landlords want during those important early stages of a buy to let investment,” said Matthew Tooth, chief commercial officer at LendInvest (pictured).

LendInvest has made a string of changes to its buy-to-let range, offering loans up to £750,000 on five-year rates and contribution to legal fees.

Since the beginning of the year, Octopus Property, which is part of the Octopus Group, has completed more than £150m of lending.

A spokesperson said Octopus was “on track to lend a record £850 million in 2018-19”, as it continued to see opportunities in the residential, development and commercial loans sectors.

Diversified product offerings have been key to the lender’s growth, with Octopus Property’s book made up of residential (48 per cent), commercial (31 per cent) and development (21 per cent) finance.

It recently completed deals in Birmingham, Derby, Manchester and Edinburgh, to take its commercial loan book past £300m, and issued a £36m development loan to fund purpose-built student accommodation in Coventry.

The lender said it is targeting a £1bn development loan book.

Enabled by intermediaries

Mario Berti, ceo of Octopus Property, said:  “We wouldn’t have got where we are without the ongoing support of our intermediaries, who have enabled us to serve an increasingly diverse range of borrowers in our core markets such as London, as well as new regions across the UK.

He said the success was in part due to “a combination of the inability and unwillingness of bank lenders to evolve and the favourable underlying drivers supporting UK real estate investment.”

Berti added: “With the backing of the Octopus Group, which has £8.5bn of assets under management, coupled with our growing and extremely experienced team, we are well placed to continue to increase our lending to borrowers throughout the UK.”

This sector remains unloved on the banking circuit and many short-term lenders look for bigger deal sizes and more developer experience.

Our view is that the success of these deals rests on the professional team and builders, rather than the individual applicant and we continue to assist clients across the UK in this area.

In addition, we have seen more retired clients wanting to downsize their home.

Often they have identified a perfect home, but have yet to place their own on the market meaning short term funds are required quickly.

Summer stands out as a challenging time of the year for the industry as a whole due to holidays.

In addition the auction houses that we work closely with have a month or two break due to lack of stock and attendees.

Property network meetings also have a summer break and the upshot of all this is that business flow is difficult to gauge.

High yield, high demand

Nationally, it’s no secret that high value single assets in and around London continue to come under huge pressure and indeed certain spots are already experiencing falls.

Our primary area of lending is in the Midlands, through the North West up to the North East, and all three of these regions continue to see robust yet steady growth combined with high yields and demand.

The North continues to steam ahead in terms of developments in the property sector and I would suggest is on a par with movement in the South, the over-riding difference being the size of the deal.

A busy market has meant changes in our team with new members of staff on board in order to meet demand.

It’s good news for the North and there is huge appetite for property, a trend which I don’t see shifting.

The Housing Delivery Fund will provide competitively priced loans from £5m to £100m to developers and housebuilders, who show the experience and track record to complete their proposed project.

Loans are available to new clients, as well as existing Barclays borrowers, in an effort to help increase the pace and volume of housing provision.

The fund is also aimed at diversifying the housing market by supporting small and medium sized businesses; almost two-thirds of homes are currently built by just 10 companies.

Of the £1bn fund, Barclays is providing £875m and Homes England, the Government’s national housing agency, will contribute £125m.

The total funding for a development scheme is up to 80% Loan to Cost and 70% Loan to Value allowing developers to stretch their equity/capital further.

John McFarlane, Barclays’ chairman, said: “There is a vital need to build more good quality homes across the country.

“This £1bn fund is about helping to do exactly that by showing firms in the business of house building that the right finance is available for projects that help meet this urgent need.

“We are very pleased to be working with government to get the country building more homes, more quickly.”

Housing secretary James Brokenshire added: “My priority as Housing Secretary is to get Britain building the homes our country needs.

“This new fund – partnering Homes England with Barclays – is a further important step by giving smaller builders access to the finance they need to get housing developments off the ground.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to not only get more homes built but also promote new and innovative approaches to construction and design that exist across the housing market.”

The government aims to add 300,000 new homes a year to supply by the mid-2020s after 217,000 homes were built last year.