The company has undertaken a national poll of intermediaries asking their views on their commercial & bridging finance business and have received some startling replies.
Managing director of TFO, Rhiannon Gray-Minton, said: “We felt it necessary to try and understand exactly what mortgage brokers are doing to replace income they have lost with the contraction of traditional mortgage business.”
The poll found that 47% of respondents claim that they are dealing with less enquiries for the same period last year, whilst 27% said they are dealing with more. Whilst this may be surprising, of those whose enquiry levels had dropped, 68% claim that this had dropped by less than 10%.
Gray-Minton continued: “We were astounded to find that only 13% of all brokers who responded state that commercial & bridging finance accounts for more than 25% of their overall business and a staggering 62% state that this type of business accounted for less than 5% of their entire business. Therefore, this demonstrates that brokers either do not see this type of business as a replacement for some of the residential mortgage business they have lost, or that they do not really understand this type of business and tend to shy away from it.”
Shoaib Bux, director of Mayfair Bridging said: “I have discussed the results with the team at TFO and I am surprised by the data. Whilst we have virtually seen a complete collapse in the more traditional mortgage markets over the last year, bridging finance has really come of age. Many brokers have not grasped this situation, using it to replace their lost income.’’
Perhaps one of the most surprising results is the fact that more and more brokers are choosing companies like TFO to deal with their commercial & bridging business. Analysis of the data collected shows that 46% of brokers choose to submit their business via specialist brokers, whilst 47% opt to go direct to the lenders, with the other 7% of respondents stating that they do not deal with this type of business at all.
Commercial and bridging finance lenders faired well in the poll with 61% of brokers saying that lenders always deal with them in a positive way, whilst 31% & 8% respectively feel that they are dealt with in a half hearted or negative manner.
