B&C spoke with Ultimate Finance’s CEO, Josh Levy (pictured above), about how the company is balancing its growth trajectory with the need to create an even quarterly split.

While Josh expressed his delight with the company’s numbers so far in 2025, there is one achievement from the lender’s results that he is particularly happy with.

“That record £190m of new business is great – it's ahead of where we were the whole of last year – but it's that consistency and equality of contribution from all the product areas that is the most pleasing aspect,” said Josh.

“We've been focused on this for a number of years, and it looks like this year has seen another bar set and another landmark reached on that front.”

The firm’s bridging loan book is one particular aspect that requires very hard work in order to maintain stability, given the short-term nature of the cases. Josh admitted that the half-years had often been unbalanced since the firm introduced bridging finance in 2017, with unequal quarterly results leading to one half-year outperforming the other.

“We came into this year not wanting to have that unequal spread, and in this year so far we've been able to do three £20m-plus quarters in a row — and would hope and expect that we'll be able to do that in the fourth quarter too.

“And that's brilliant because it means that the market positioning we are aiming for is a constant rather than a bit less stable.”

While Josh has his eyes on a stable loan book, he is also determined that the company will continue to grow and build its proposition, not least in bridging. While the bridging book may currently be the firm’s smallest, coming in at £90m, Josh wants to see the offering expand.

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“We very much like the bridging space. We have a fairly narrow product offering and one of the objectives we had coming into this year, which absolutely carries on into next year, is to see how we can broaden and diversify and extend what we're offering.”

The firm’s new business originations are on track to beat last year’s £80m in December, according to Josh. Additionally, the firm managed to expand its purchase bridging and below market value offerings this year.

“But the ambition is to unlock some of the origination capacity that sits in other areas of our product set,” said Josh.

Having already seen growth this year, Josh wants to see further expansion in what Ultimate Finance classes as development finish and exit, whereby finishing funds are provided to get to practical completion and the firm then works with the borrower to provide an extended sales period.

“Specifically on our refurbishment offering, we believe there's a lot of untapped demand that we're not currently meeting while others are.

“That's been an area where we haven't been able to originate what we thought we would coming into this year. But that's where our targets are focused for next year.”

Additionally, the lender is also aiming to introduce streamlined valuation, credit and legal processes — set to be expanded and introduced before Christmas — as well as growing its semi-commercial offering and introducing a new head of operations role with a specific focus on bridging.

As the company expands its bridging proposition over this year and going into next, Josh explained that he does not want to put too much focus on the numbers themselves, despite being keen to hit companywide loan book targets.

“Ultimately, the loan book drives income, which drives performance everywhere, and so it's hard to ignore that one.

“We'll definitely look to break through the £400m milestone for the first time,” said Josh, while adding the caveat that “it's important to celebrate these things when they happen, but not become obsessed with them.

“The ambition is to grow all three product areas of the business, and that will help us to continue to have a very diversified and ultimately strong multi-product lending operation.”