However, all of thepress coverage draws its comparisons from property index and fails to look at bridging as an innovative product with more uses than bridging the gap whenbuying and selling property.
The uses of short-term funding have grown over the years and cater for cases that high street lenders don’t now have an appetite for. There are so many entrepreneurial opportunities for the rightinvestor to purchase land, distressed property and completed sites. For auction properties, an investor can get very good yields if they buy at the right price, but again mainstream lenders, unlike specialist lenders, can’t lend in the completion timescales required by auction houses.
Bridging is a flexible product in the right circumstances, but offering it instead of a longer-term loan for reasons such as a quick fix financially, without a review of the purpose, affordability and exit, is not the way to make sure that the market’s growth is sustainable.
After all, the paying off of a bridge comes from an exit strategy and when that is poorly, or in fact, not at all planned, then it can become a difficult situation to handle for all concerned.
However, as long as the market remains responsive to the needs of customers and provides the right suite of products, we can continue to expect a market that enjoys sustainable growth going forward.
