Although some industry commentators believe the market is a little over-heated at the moment, driven by the increased activity thanks to the Stamp Duty holiday, deals are still being done and Signature Property Finance is funding them.
Andy Neocleous, our Relationship Manager for London and the South connected with a broker new to us, St Matthews Finance of Essex in January and recently completed their first deal, after just a month.
The broker in question is a former loan underwriter, which ensured the deal was organised expertly, with all the necessary documentation correct and available from the outset, which to be honest is a nice change compared to many of the deals brought to us.
Teamwork is important in property deals, especially when the funds are needed quickly and a well-organised, experienced broker bringing applications from experienced property professionals with proven track records, will always attract our attention.
To seize the opportunity, the client needed to move fast and required a bridging loan of £200k to assist with refurbishment work on several properties, including a mid-terrace period London property, that had been previously transformed into two flats.
Having undertaken to continue lending throughout the lockdown, the logistics of the deal and the required valuation proved no obstacle and once again the deal was conducted on the terms agreed at the outset – no nasty surprises with Signature.
Our panel valuers decided the unencumbered property had an open market value (OMV) of £500k, the figure Signature uses in our funding criteria, compared with a 90-day valuation of £465k, the figure more typically used by our competitors.
The client requested a 9-month term, which we readily agreed as we considered this was sufficient time to conclude the refurbishments and refinance the loan onto a buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage.
As Andy put it:
“I only made a connection with this broker on the 22nd of Jan and had the first loan application in by 4th of Feb, completing our first deal by the 3rd March, which just goes to show how quickly we can get deals done; a great success story.
“It helps though that the broker is a former underwriter, who is super-organised and communicates really well throughout. This deal illustrates brilliantly what Signature can do and how we deliver on our promise to always do what we say we will do.”
Whilst the market continues to be challenging and the majority of our enquiries tend to be for small ground-up development finance projects, we continue to support the ambition of property professionals across the UK.
If you have would like to discuss your property finance needs, please get in touch with Andy and he’ll get the conversation started. If you’re not in London or the South, don’t worry, he’ll point you to the right Relationship Manager wherever you are in England, Scotland or Wales.