The specialist finance provider relaunched its bridging proposition in October last year, after announcing its new bridging team led by Jamie .

Since then, the bank has seen high demand for its bridging finance products, with new enquiries doubling each month since October. 

Overall, HTB has seen a wide variety of cases, including development exit, land with planning transactions, residential investment, refurbishments, and commercial and semi-commercial auction purchases.

“We’re getting a good blend of business, especially development exit [bridging loans], which seem to be quite popular at the moment, considering the delays due to the pandemic, as well as the issues with material costs,” Lorenzo stated.

“Commercial and semi-commercial bridging auction purchases also seem very popular, with more distressed assets coming into the market now, which I expect to see a lot more of going into 2023.

“As we’re in a growth stage, we want to be able to cater for a selection of transactions, rather than just one type, so I’m quite pleased with how it’s going from that perspective, as we’re getting a good spread of business.”

HTB's bridging finance team (L-R): Jamie Jolly; Alex McMillen (BDM); Herbert-Barnaby Bone (BDM); Lorenzo Satchell

A focus on healthy relationships

Jamie added that a significant portion of its bridging finance business comes from returning brokers and clients — something that HTB really values.

“At the moment, we have a 50/50 split between new and repeat business, but I wouldn’t be surprised if in a year’s time, all our loans will be from repeat clients. 

“Already, we’ve got a handful of introducers that are on their third or fourth funding completion with us, and we only launched at the end of last year.

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“Having healthy relationships is key — there's a level of trust and respect there that works both ways, and a good broker relationship is one where an intermediary has no issue with feeding you healthy critique on what you can do to improve.”

In a bid to further build its relationships with brokers, the bank is looking to establish a panel of key partners to work closely with.

While the final figure is yet to be confirmed, Lorenzo divulged that HTB is aiming to have approximately 50 key partners in total.

“We don’t want to create a headache for ourselves by bringing lots of new broker partners on board and having too much business [that we can’t]   provide the service we’re very much proud of — especially as we’ve got quite a small team at the moment; you have to find a balance,” Jamie added.

When it comes to the people the business is looking to partner with, Lorenzo said there was one fundamental characteristic the team looked for: experience.

For those selected to be part of the key partner panel, HTB is considering having gold- and platinum-level partners, and offering specific benefits. 

Advantages for partners are expected to include increased frequency of visits by the lender’s salespeople, a dedicated underwriter, and exclusive access to specific products. 

“We might even consider working together to create a new bespoke product if that makes sense for both parties,” noted Lorenzo.

Driving organic growth on all fronts

The new panel is part of HTB’s plans to meet its ambitious targets for 2023 and beyond.

While the bank did not share an exact figure, Jamie said the division’s ultimate aspiration is to increase total bridging lending by 500% in the next 18 months. 

In order to support this plan, the company aims to expand its workforce: “We’re currently looking at the types of people we want to bring to the team, and we fully expect to triple our headcount (currently 12 people) in the next 18-24 months,” stated Jamie.

However, the duo clarifies they will be increasing the team gradually based on business demand.

“I think there's a very positive outlook for the short-term lending channel going into 2023,” said James, “however, there is an element of uncertainty in the market, so we want to move forward positively, but with a cautious approach.”