Of those surveyed, 41% felt it had become easier while 83% said they will continue to use independent development finance lenders even if the high street banks began to relax their lending criteria.
Noel Meredith, director at United Trust Bank, said: “It’s encouraging to hear that brokers are finding lenders more willing to consider their development finance proposals and if the high street banks are easing their restrictions on offering credit to developers it’s a strong indication that confidence in the property market may be returning.”
Meredith said many brokers have built strong relationships with smaller, independent development finance banks which continued to offer finance when the big banks brought down the shutters.
He added: “As a result whilst specialist lenders may initially have been viewed by some as an alternative source of funding until the high street lenders returned, many brokers and developers have been won over by the flexibility and service offered by these specialist lenders to the point that they may not automatically return to the high street banks when they loosen their purse strings.”
When asked for the main reason why they would continue to use a specialist development finance lender rather than a high street bank;
32% said that independent development finance banks were more flexible than high street lenders
24% said they would keep using independent development finance banks because they supported developers, continuing to lend when the high street banks wouldn’t
23% said they got a better service from an independent development finance bank.
