One month after the bridging lender celebrated its second birthday, it worked stringently to complete a £1.1 million loan for a London property on Friday.
CEO of Hope Capital, Jonathan Sealey, said:
“This is our largest bridging deal to date. With this particular deal, I won’t say names [although it is a lender everyone in the industry knows], but their current funder was unwilling to extend their funding route and wanted them to either take a two- year fixed rate loan or default. Hope stepped in and was utilised as an exit.”
The clients are property investors with a commercial and residential portfolio. The deal was a first charge over three properties, to make an LTV of 65 per cent work. It took two weeks to complete from when it was first introduced.
November 2013 is already Hope’s biggest ever month with over £2.5 million lent to borrowers. There are more deals in the pipeline for the rest of the month and lender is very much open for business.
Hope’s previous record deal was a £750,000 first charge loan introduced by private financier Steven McColl of Soho Corporate.
Hope Capital’s ambitious growth targets for 2013 have been met and surpassed. It is continuously expanding its loan book to help experienced property investors take advantage of more and more opportunities. The lender currently offers brokers and introducers a one per cent proc fee on all completed bridging deals.
Hope Capital is planning on opening a London office in the New Year. Jonathan responded: “That’s the next step for us, we’ve already got viewings confirmed in the New Year and it will be good to have a London and South presence.”
Jonathan admitted that the bridging lender will be looking to recruit over the next six months, and will also explore hiring a BDM.
Looking to the future, Jonathan added:
"We’ve had a very successful year, one which has surpassed our projections. Brokers are realising that as we used our own private funds to facilitate bridging loans; if we like a bridging deal we can look to lend on it even if it is somewhat outside our current lending criteria.
“We started off as a small fish in the industry, but the business is a long term project, we’re here to stay and we’re just getting bigger and better.”
