Acre Lane Capital joins Bridging Loan Directory
By David Craik
Bridging and development finance lender Acre Lane Capital has joined the Bridging Loan Directory to shine a light on its path to further growth.
The Hertfordshire based lender, which was set up in 2018 and whose chief executive is former JP Morgan investment banker Ian Wilson, provides non-regulated short-term development, bridging and exit finance to the residential and semi-commercial real estate sectors in England and Wales.
Its standard bridging loans go up to a maximum of £30million with LTVs of up to 75% and a 0.59% interest rate.
Development finance loans range between £500,000 and £10million with LTC’s of up to 90% and development exit loans of up to £15million.
Wilson says despite a tricky first lockdown last Spring when it ‘did only a fraction’ of regular business, demand has bounced back since particularly in residential developments.
“This February we did over 6 times more business than in the same month in 2020 which was pre-Covid,” he states.
“We’ve seen a very large jump in deals driven by a surge in house prices, our first ever marketing push last September and less competition from other lenders whose wings have been clipped by the pandemic.
We also offer fast speed of service completing one recent £4.9million development exit loan in just a week.”
He also points to the company’s motto of ‘Bringing Back Honesty’ as a key differentiator.
“We do what we say we do. When we say that we can lend up to 90% on loan to cost we do it. We don’t just say later it is something we might do on the 8th Wednesday of the month!” he says.
“The intention is that when we issue a Decision in Principle, we continue to do what we say on the term sheet unless the facts change.
Of course, you are not aware of the full picture when you initially quote but we do as much due diligence as we can on the developer and the project such as whether any units have pre-sold.
It is bringing back honesty and makes us stand out.”
Acre Lane has further enhanced its customer service standards in the last 3 months via a new legal portal where clients can see exactly what stage their loan has reached.
“It’s never nice for any party not to know where the loan is at and this portal allows them to see who has got the ball,” Wilson explains.
“We’re also launching this week an online application KYC/AML function using Nivo to quicken up the process for customers. It should also improve our own efficiencies.”
The company is hiring a range of new Business Development Managers, Underwriters and Marketing experts as it prepares for further growth.
“The opportunities are sitting in front of us. We can significantly expand our volume of business,” Wilson says.
“We are getting cold enquiries from brokers a number of times every day. We want to develop deep relationships with quality brokers.”
Joining the Bridging Loan Directory should help in that aim.
“It’s never a sound strategy to keep your light hidden under a bushel,” he says.
“I believe there will be a positive reaction by getting ourselves out there in front of potential clients.
Attraction is always stronger than promotion and after our first couple of years where we transactionally lived hand to mouth, we now all have an organised growth plan to get behind.
We are here for the long term because the bottom line is our customers matter to us and we do the right thing by them.”
David Craik is a freelance journalist writing news, feature articles, blogs and guides for national newspapers and magazines. His main areas of interest include finance, property and investments.
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