Brokers helped back £15bn of lending in 2019
Brokers helped originate almost £15bn of lending last year, with most coming from new borrowers.
Analysis by the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) found that its members helped arrange £14.9bn of loans in 2019, of which 65 per cent were new business and 35 per cent were from clients seeking to refinance.
The research found brokers choose lenders based on a variety of factors but 37 per cent value a low rate, 18 per cent go by previous experience, 16 per cent by best fit and six per cent by speed.
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The most common reasons lenders turned away deals in 2019 were a client’s poor credit history, the sector being deemed too risky, the business lacking enough collateral, the lack of strong cashflow and the amount requested being too high, the NACFB said.
The average deal size arranged by NACFB members was £450,145.
Broken down by sector, development brokers registered an average deal size of £1.5m across 58 deals per brokerage.
The average value of a short-term or bridging loan was £544,318 across 95 deals per brokerage and commercial mortgage brokers saw an average of £516,029 across 119 deals per brokerage, whilst buy-to-let brokers held £355,599 across 132 deals.
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The average value of each deal in the leasing and asset space was £51,091 – although this was across a greater number of deals at an average of 468 per brokerage.
“The renewed certainty, clarity and clout with which we can engage with our stakeholders, means that in 2020, when the NACFB starts a conversation, others will sit-up and listen,” Graham Toy, chief executive of the NACFB, said.
“The NACFB will utilise this data throughout the year when engaging with key policy, regulatory and industry stakeholders.”
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