Welcome note: Andrew Lazare

Welcome

note Andrew Lazare

This year saw the eleventh anniversary of Mint Property Finance. As with every milestone, it caused us to pause and reflect on how far we’ve come in this time, and on the future

Since the inception of the business in 2011, we’re proud to have recorded sustained and significant year-on-year growth without any capital losses. When looking at our team, now 50-plus strong and boasting some of whom I consider to be the best people in the industry, it’s hard to believe that little over a decade ago it was just Mike Silverman and I working out of my family’s garage. And it’s not just the size of the Mint Property Finance family that has grown, but our range of specialist products and services, with the business evolving from what I will refer to as a ‘vanilla bridging’ company to a full-service specialist finance lender, offering a suite of bridging and development finance products. The decision to rebrand our business to Mint Property Finance in 2020 acknowledged not only the transformation of the business to date, but paved the way for what is to come, as we continue to shape the future of lending. This includes the addition of our recent multimillion-pound block-funding facility with Aldermore Bank with an aspiration to deliver longer-term loans of three to five years, and therfore provide regulated products in the future.

Over the coming pages, we look forward to sharing with you a small insight into just some of the ways in which we continue to evolve to not only meet the market’s needs, but to exceed them.

Included is an introduction to our head of risk management, Peter Howarth, who reveals how the department structures every loan to succeed, contributing to the business’s 100% success rate; a look at how we’re always there for the borrower; and our new streamlined legal process, which enables us to complete loans quicker, positioning Mint Property Finance alongside the fastest in the industry. We’re also pleased to share with you a summary of our recent roundtable hosted in partnership with Bridging & Commercial in which we debated: What does the specialist finance industry need in 2023 and beyond? People often ask me what I believe is the key to our success and it is simple: our people, our readiness to listen and invest, and to respond. We don’t dictate to investors, brokers, professional introducers and borrowers, we shape our business to their needs.