In reality 27% of brokers said deals took two to three weeks to complete while 36% said three to four weeks was the average time it took to take a deal from application to drawdown.
Alan Margolis, head of bridging at United Trust Bank, said: “This research supports our own experience that cases where it’s necessary to complete a bridging loan in just a few days or even hours are rare.
“We are very occasionally called upon to pull out all the stops when circumstances demand a very swift turnaround and we’re certainly capable of doing so but in the main what borrowers need most is the certainty that bridging finance will be available rather than needing to have the money itself in say, 24 hours.”
Fewer than one in 10 brokers said that in their experience cases were generally completed in under a fortnight.
Lucy Hodge, director of Vantage Finance, said the timescale very much depends on the client’s objectives.
She said: “I wouldn’t say that deals completing in a few days are rare – if the client needs the money urgently then depending on the speed with which third parties act, it can be done.
“But often clients have a date in mind for completion and don’t need the money straight away. It is a myth that every deal is super urgent.”
Turnaround times are often at the mercy of third parties which need to provide redemption figures, consent or planning permissions which prevent completion within two weeks.
Duncan Kreegar, director of West One Loans, said that his company get a lot of requests for bridging loans to complete in 48 hours and while they are geared up to meet this request often the borrower is not aware of what is required of him to complete a deal in this time frame.
He said: “The way we work at West One is tailored towards completing loans in short time frames but the borrower can be the reason these timescales cannot be met because they don’t provide the information in time for completion.”
