Yesterday the BBA announced the latest gross mortgage lending for its members. It’s not great news.
Even on the most optimistic projections, taking into account Funding for Lending, the mainstream market won’t have crept back to 2007 levels until the mid-2020s. But even that level of growth looks unlikely given that in December the BBA’s members failed to reach the level of gross lending seen a year before.
This confirms the mainstream’s crawl over the finish line in 2012 – and the inching progress expected for the foreseeable future. A lending crisis on the scale we’ve experienced for nearly six years requires a comparably momentous response. High street banks have made little fundamental progress in the way they do business.
Alternative finance is working on a whole other level, and that’s why it’s proving far more useful for many developers, landlords, and businesses. Bridging finance is kick-starting projects that the mainstream market perhaps can’t fund for all manner of reasons. The imagination of bridging lenders and their flair is what will fill part of the huge gap in funding.
That’s why our West One Bridging Index shows the industry rocketing towards the £1.5 billion mark in annual gross lending – and why brokers expect 36% growth this year.
