Is the housing market improving?

There are without doubt more mortgage products available in the residential housing market today. This may have contributed to the small increase in house prices over the last 3 months as reported by the Halifax & Nationwide.

As bridging lenders products tend to follow the mortgage market any changes from their perspective can be a forward indicator. We note the following news from the bridging loan market:-

1. A recent broker survey noted an upward trend for bridging loans.
2. One of our funders has expressed an interest in financing small, niche property development projects.
3. Another lender has recently raised £75m of capital for new lending.
4. Finally, one lender has reported a 100% increase in actual lending over recent months.

There is obviously a long way to go before the inevitable recovery, but maybe we have reached a turning point.

Bridging loans and buy to let investments

A news report today says that experienced buy to let investors are using bridging loans to take advantage of "distressed residential & commercial propery sales". Demand for bridging finance has increased by over 200% over the last 9 months, apparently. We think this probably means enquiries rather than completions based on the low loan to values on offer by the larger bridging lenders. However we are positive that the main thrust of the article with regard to experienced landlords is without doubt true.

As commercial loan specialists we can help with all short term bridging requirements and arrange the exit too! Visit our web site for more information and don't forget to check out our latest buy-to-let mortgage deals while you are there.

Can a Bridging Loan Really Complete in Less than 24 Hours?

Most bridging lenders emphasise their speed of service when advertising short term loans. Providing funds within 24-48 hours from application to completion shows the flexibility of non-status bridging loan products and the providers. Can a property deal really be financed in such a short time-scale? Well, the answer is yes, but I wouldn't bank on it!

To achieve such a fast loan completion much of the background work needs to be already available, such as a property valuation that is acceptable to the potential bridging lender with most of the necessary legal work ready and waiting at your solicitors, i.e. search, title deeds etc. Representatives of both the lender and borrowers need to be in a position to move quickly. Even when everything is available things can still go wrong, for example, an unexpected question arises from the documentation provided.

Our simple recommendation is not to get into the position of needing a bridging loan in such a short timescale, even where a more relaxed 5-10 day timeframe is available, the unexpected can cause delays. Where a customer needs to raise cash and a high speed bridging finance solution is the correct loan option then the borrower should minimise the risk of delay by keeping in control of what is in their own domain i.e. own solicitors and providing all requested information at the start of the process as delay here can extend time to completion resulting in a missed deadline.

If you need finance quickly then a good bridging loan broker should be able to help reduce the potential for delays.

Commercial Loan - update

Finance offerings in the commercial loan market place continues to change weekly.

Just recently we have been informed of changes to either prices or criteria in the following commercial areas:-

Price increases in the cost of equipment leasing from a number of lenders.

In the short term leasehold business sector one of the main lenders has pulled out of the market.

A major bridging loan lender has announced slight price reductions accompanied by a large reduction in what they will lend against property values.

It goes without saying that virtually all high geared property development loan lenders have either greatly tightened their lending criteria or are sitting on their hands!

Commercial deals can still be placed but overall the quality of any business finance proposal submitted by either brokers or borrowers needs to be much higher than previously required.

Bridging Loan News

Eland Business Services Limited have just launched a new web-site dedicated to a single finance product as part of our marketing effort.

www.bridgingfinanceoptions.com will focus solely on short term bridging loans to complement our existing general commercial finance site.

If you are an investor, property developer or maybe moving home needing cash fast and reside in the UK why not pay our site a visit.