“I think the heightened interest rate environment in the short-term lending space has been the key driver in the product’s growth”
– Joe Aston – Aria Finance
PR: Please tell us a little about yourself and your role in the property industry
JA: I’m the Sales and Commercial Director at Aria Finance. I have almost a decade of experience within the sector, and our firm successfully completed over £500M worth of specialist lending last year. Alongside operationally running the business, I run my own high-value pipeline, regularly completing loans of over £10M across both Bridging Finance, Commercial Mortgages and complex BTL mortgages.
PR: How are landlords using bridging finance in today’s market, and what types of projects are proving most popular?
JA: Landlords have proven themselves, once again, to be resolute and agile. A pivot in strategy to short-term funding to purchase/invest in underserved properties and completing works to increase the value in the asset makes perfect sense.
There is more education in the market, and more borrowers are waking up to the opportunity that bridging can bring, enabling the borrower to either sell the asset for a profit or retain the property and let it out at an even greater yield – potentially even refinancing against the increased value and withdrawing some profit to go again!
Aside from refurbishment, we’re also seeing savvy investors find more potential gems at auction alongside other investors taking their existing single dwelling properties and undertaking work to convert them into HMOs (where appropriate) – again increasing the value of the asset and the rental value.
PR: What should property investors be aware of when comparing bridging lenders, and what are the key terms they should look out for?
Many lenders in the market can, rightfully, claim to be quick to lend. Key considerations for me are how a lender is funded and what the terms are around their exit process. Most of the market will have no exit penalties on their products, and the most reputable lenders will have a proven track record of supporting borrowers through a project when times are tough and if you need more time.
Utilising a specialist broker in the space is essential to get legitimate expertise around whether a lender is the right fit for a borrower’s expectations and plans.
JA: How has demand for bridging changed over the past 12 months, and what’s driving that shift?
I think the heightened interest rate environment in the short-term lending space has been the key driver in the product’s growth. Ambitious property professionals are constantly innovating and sourcing opportunities where they can add value and increase their ROI on a range of property assets – often backed by creative short-term funding in this fast-paced market.
PR: In what scenarios can bridging finance offer landlords a competitive advantage, especially in a high-rate or fast-moving market?
JA: Speed and Flexibility! More and more lenders are improving their processes to deploy funds safely and quicker than ever before, with streamlined legal processes and wider spread use of AVMs being two obvious examples.
The ability to move quickly when funding a project can give a borrower the edge when negotiating or trying to complete, and the creative ‘can do’ attitude of the majority of the lending space enables lenders to work with a borrower to discover ways to structure even the most complex of transaction.
PR: What’s your outlook for the bridging sector in 2025, and how do you see investor demand evolving?
JA: The sector continues to grow, and the key thing, for me, is continued education of the borrower market – most of whom will be new to the product. The more we educate people on the opportunities the product can create, the more demand we’ll see for this type of funding moving forward, even in spite of the slow declining term market.
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