COVER
INTERVIEW
Thinking on your feet: the leading lender making huge strides in bridging Born out of the 2008 crisis, LendInvest fittingly developed a nimble approach to bridge lending, swiftly adapting to unpredictable market changes and leveraging technology to stay ahead of the game.
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ince its inception, London-based LendInvest has reportedly lent more than £4 billion in mortgages, spurred on by their mission “to make property finance simple,” having built an asset management platform that’s been designed to simplify and speed up mortgage lending. The result has been a better customer experience for its borrowers as well as intermediaries and investors. Profitable since 2015, the company also became the first UK fintech to securitise a portfolio of buy-to-let mortgages in 2019. The opportunities for bridging seem boundless. According to the latest Ernst & Young UK bridging market study, bridging products have now been thrust into the mainstream lending market in response to a growing focus on the residential property sector, sparked by the recent stamp duty waiver and a need to secure preferred properties quickly. But like everyone else in the financial sector, bridging lenders also face important challenges for the remainder of the year, as highlighted by the survey, in the shape of increased competition, skilled labour shortages, and the ongoing race to
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BRIDGING INTRODUCER JUNE 2022
adopt the latest technology – all this in addition to the Bank of England’s recent decision to increase the base rate to the highest level in 13 years. But although the BoE’s rate rise was flagged “as a potential threat to the profitability of bridging lenders,” the study pointed out that there was still an “appetite for larger loans,” with 28 per cent of respondents looking to offer larger facilities over the next 12 months. Mortgage Introducer caught up with Justin Trowse, director of bridging finance, to discuss LendInvest’s portfolio, its business ethos, the company’s growth during the COVID pandemic, and what the future holds in a rising-rate environment. How is the commercial property landscape beginning to look for you post-pandemic? Have you bounced back to pre-pandemic levels of business? In terms of COVID-19, I think we’ve been quite lucky. As a sector we’ve had quite a lot of government aid in terms of stimulus and also initiatives like CBILS and similar schemes. We all thought it was going → www.sfintroducer.com
