West One Loans has recorded a strong performance from its bridging product and industry-leading turnaround times, after the lender published its short-term lending results for the first half of 2021.

The specialist bridging lender, which has remained open for business throughout the COVID crisis, confirmed a total of £2.3bn sets of terms were issued in H1 – a figure up 29% on the same period last year.

The overall increase in activity in the housing market, as well as demand from borrowers expanding and diversifying their portfolios, have been some of the key drivers for West One’s performance this year. The lender reported gross completions climbing by 32% from H1 2020 to £485m for 2021 throughout its short-term bridging and development offering.

West One also reported the average turnaround time for its loans to complete is currently 25% quicker than the industry average, which an EY study this year revealed stands at 40 days or over.

The lender’s sales director for bridging, Nick Jones, said that there is clearly high demand in the market at present.

“The level of customer service, quality of the product and quick turnaround time from the team at West One, has meant we’ve been able to maximise those opportunities,” Jones commented.

“Our long-standing and strong relationships with our broker and intermediary network have also been a key factor. When you’re working with quality partners day-in day-out, it makes the whole process more efficient and helps bring down the turnaround times to industry-leading levels.

“It also demonstrates the strength of the bridging finance sector right now, as increasingly people are looking to specialist lenders to achieve their property-owning aspirations.”

Share Story: