Outgoing ASTL chief executive Adrian Bloomfield confirmed the bridging lender trade body is in the process of “tinkering with the format” but hopes an agreed set of market statistics will be available in a month.
He said: “It is my expectation, and please don’t shoot me if it doesn’t come out, that we will have data collection from the period pertaining to 31st March 2012.
“The members of the ASTL have already agreed going forward those figures will be released.”
As yet there are no official statistics collated to give an accurate picture of the bridging market, which is estimated to do around £1bn gross lending a year.
This is a mix of regulated, unregulated and second charge bridging.
West One publishes a report that estimated gross lending in the bridging market hit £911m in 2011 – but these figures are based on the lender’s own experience, “wider research from the industry” other publically available information.
Duncan Kreeger, chairman of West One Loans, said: "This sounds like the ASTL is planning to take the numbers generated by its membership base and aggregate them up to form a bridging monitor. The West One Bridging Index analyses detailed information based on our own management data as well as industry sources including, but not limited to, statistics published regularly by the AOBP.
"I predict the ASTL’s monitor will be to the West One Bridging Index what the Kia Cee'd is to the Bugatti Veyron.”
