2013 is an exciting time for property investors and Shawbrook Bank, with investors looking to expand their portfolios following an increase of opportunities in the market. As a well-capitalised bank with strong funds in place to support our growth, we are well placed to lend to experienced investors who want to take advantage of opportunities coming their way.
From speaking to property investors and hearing feedback from our network of brokers, we are aware that investors are increasingly looking to diversify and grow their portfolios. We expect the emphasis to remain on mainstream buy-to-let mortgages, but banks like Shawbrook now offer a greater product range to accommodate the deals that don’t meet the standard BTL rigid criteria. Our specialist and expert teams are always on hand to support and guide brokers though deals and find ways to make them work.
We have ambitious plans to lend more than £500m to the property investor market over the next two years, and we expect to see a rise in the number of complex deals underwritten. Shawbrook has a range of no-nonsense products in place to make it easier for credit-worthy businesses and investors to borrow. We know that there is a real demand for HMO’s, multi-units and mixed use commercial expansion as well as the standard deals that fall outside of the specialised BTL market due to the number of properties in their portfolio or the minimum income required. We offer investors a viable lending alternative to increase their share in what is a growing market.
All our products are built with the investor in mind, making it easier for them to borrow, and simpler for brokers to win and complete new business. Shawbrook is committed to lending to experienced investors and we have already made a number of product changes this year. We removed the 0.25% loading on 10 year interest only. Interest only is now available on 3,5 & 10 year terms on residential property up to 75% LTV and semi-commercial property to 70% LTV. These changes were made following feedback from our brokers. We always strive to understand their requirements and our product changes aren’t just done on a whim. They are concrete changes which really will benefit our brokers, and open up the market for investor clients.
Since January, we have also reduced our arrangement fees to 1.70% and also introduced a reduction of up to 0.60% across our rates. We want to make Shawbrook the lender to follow in 2013 and these changes highlight our intent. Changes have since been made to our short term bridging finance (STL) product range. We are the market leader for STL rates and reduced our rates to 0.65% per month on standard bridging and just 0.73% on refurbishment bridging. All these changes are backed up by an expert team, committed to providing the best prices, quick delivery, professionalism and expertise.
It’s an exciting time to be working within the investor market. We want to work with brokers and investors and always want to do business with larger portfolio investors. We’ve started the year as we mean to go on and the commercial lending team has a lot more planned in the coming months.
