Fincorp said a large part of the rise was due to an increase in business introduced by intermediaries delivering quality introductions and by clients who came back repeatedly over the year to get funding for multiple projects.
Matthew Anderson, director at Fincorp, said:
“2013 has been a terrific year for us at Fincorp. We’ve expanded the business considerably thanks to several key relationships we have with brokers and we’d like to thank them for that.
“We’ve also seen a much broader base in terms of the type of loans we’ve been writing – we have always done a lot of business as a result of people buying at auction, but this year we’ve seen more developers looking at light refurb projects.”
Fincorp has also increased the volume of business done on commercial second charge loans, commercial property acquisitions and several big-ticket prime London residential development deals.
Its largest loan in in 2013 was £8 million, whilst its smallest was just £100,000.
“It’s one of the pleasing things about the past year and we’re confident the variety of deals we’re doing will continue into 2014.”
Fincorp attributed much of its success to various partnerships it has developed over the year, allowing it to expand its geographical reach south from London into Brighton and the surrounding areas, as well west to Bath, Bristol and the surrounding areas.
In May it announced a strategic partnership with bridging veteran Martyn Smith to introduce funding to new bridging lender Bath & West, operating in the South West of England and Wales.
Martyn Smith, director of Bath & West, said:
"I have a great deal of respect for Fincorp's commitment to high quality service and, having known the organisation since its launch, it's been a pleasure to work so closely with Matthew and the team. I look forward to sharing even greater success next year."
Anderson said the tie-up had been a success and that he looked forward to rising levels of business into 2014.
Anderson, who has been vocal in the press about the need to be clear and simple on pricing and fees, also underlined the fact that Fincorp’s expansion had not led the lender to compromise its standards on underwriting.
He said:
“There has been so much noise in the bridging market in the past year that it’s easy to think the sector has gone boom."
“Indeed various statistics from some parts of the market suggest loan to values across the sector are going up while headline pricing is coming down.”
But he added: “I think there is a core of lenders in the short-term finance market doing a good job providing property developers and professionals with stable funding to get projects done. That’s the sort of lending we are committed to and I’m pleased to say that we have grown our business despite the fact we’ve stayed true to our underwriting standards and haven’t compromised on quality anywhere.”
Anderson also confirmed that Fincorp is looking to expand its team in 2014, building on the success of Gary Playle’s appointment as business development manager in February this year.
