The team at LendInvest, a leading digital financing platform for the UK market, has commented on the importance of rates and technology, as part of their preview of 2022.
LendInvest Sales Director Leanne Smith notes that in her role (as sales director for their internal Business Development team), she has been well placed to “observe the market for the past 12 months, seeing the trends and challenges and then seeing how LendInvest can best respond.”
While commenting on the market challenges for her team, she said:
“Across bridging and Buy-to-Let this year was defined by ever-shifting rates as lenders looked to offer brokers the best deal possible for their clients. We have remained competitive throughout, continuing to offer brokers the [appropriate] products they expect across bridging, development and BTL, but also being a proactive lender who understands and supports broker needs.”
Smith revealed that at LendInvest, they have continued to “implement technology across all products to increase enquiries and applications while supporting our team to run more efficiently through to completion.”
Smith further noted that their broker portals have been “filled with new tech on both the application end and the back end for our ops team, to ensure quick enquiry turn arounds, instant terms and then a fast deal once the paperless application progresses.”
She confirmed that htey also continued to expand their reach in the market. She pointed out that their new refurbishment finance product provides the high-LTV finance they “found the market was crying out for, on top of [their] new products which encourage energy-efficiency.”
She explained that this also “helps fill out our product suite, meaning borrowers can stay with us throughout the lifetime of their product with cheaper fees when transitioning.”
She also shared that the increased adoption of their bridging portal “shows a real appetite for technology-enabled lending and that we are meeting what our brokers have come to expect.”
She further revealed that they are “seeing more enquiries and apps through the portal, while our Buy-to-Let product has continued to grow year-on-year, with record volumes coming through towards the end of the year.”
While commenting on what she expects the market to look like in 2022, Smith said:
“Despite not going into a full lockdown since early 2020, Covid will continue to loom large over the market as brokers, borrowers and homeowners continue to adapt. Around that though, much of the landscape will continue on the needs and trends of this year. Energy efficiency and green products will be on the top of the agenda for developers, bridging investors and landlords with EPC ratings needing to be a C in all new tenancies by 2025, and in all tenancies by 2028.”
She added:
“We will continue to operate in this space by incentivising landlords to invest in green properties and supporting developers and refurbishment investors to continue upgrading their properties. A potential slow down in the selling market will lead to developers or bridging investors retaining stock for Buy-to-Let investments and continue to put more emphasis on bridge-to-let and refurbishment products, where we’ll continue to support keeping the costs down throughout transitions.”
She also noted that opportunities in Central London should “begin to grow again for both residential and commercial needs, although the rental landscape is still changing.”
She added that supporting young professionals and FTB next year will be “key such as HMOs with good amenities and affordable first homes.”
Going on to comment on what the challenges might be, she said:
“If the rate race continues, the emphasis will be on all lenders to continue offering the best for their clients, and then finding ways to distinguish themselves with service in the market. Lenders have to be flexible around any potential supply chain problems, and the impact of high volumes on legal and valuers and ensure they have the capacity to deal with it.”
She concluded:
“[We will] continue expanding our place in the market with new products launching early in the year, and making accessing all of our products much easier through technology and growing out the portal.”