Glenhawk launches regulated bridging loan product

By Bridging Loan Directory 27th October 2020

Glenhawk, the fast-growing UK challenger lender, has launched its first regulated bridging product, for borrowers looking to secure finance against their primary residence, marking its entry into the £250 billion UK homeowner loan market.

Launched in direct response to increasing borrower demand, the new product follows the announcement of the J.P. Morgan funding line secured by Glenhawk earlier this year, which represented the U.S bank’s UK bridging market debut.

Defying the Covid-19 uncertainty, Glenhawk remains on track to grow its loan book to £200 million by the end of 2021.

Key features of the new product include:

Loan size: £100,000-£1.5 million
Term length: 12 months
Interest rate: from 0.55% per month
No admin or exit fees

Glenhawk has formed a dedicated team focused on the new product, headed up by its Director of Lending, Nick Hilton, who has been responsible for over half a billion pounds of residential and commercial bridging since 2008.

Regulated bridging lending hit a record high in Q2, representing 55.6% of the bridging market, up from 37.5% in the same quarter of 2019, the first time it had outperformed unregulated transactions.

This has been driven by homeowners increasingly looking at refurbishment and development opportunities as the working from home trend sees them look at how to best utilise existing space, whilst the number of people looking at upsizing or downsizing has recovered to pre-Covid levels, underpinned by the introduction of the stamp duty holiday in July.

Guy Harrington, pictured, CEO of Glenhawk, commented:

“Having experienced an exponential growth in enquires for a regulated product, this launch is the culmination of nearly 18 months of hard work, which started with FCA regulation, and is a signficant milestone for the business.

The UK homeowner loan market has been one of the more resilient since the outbreak of Covid-19, underpinned by government stimulus and changing consumer trends.

It is also hugely underserved and we are confident our market differentiating ethos of fairness and transparency will be particularly appealing.

We expect strong demand due to the simple nature of the product, and with the support of J.P. Morgan look forward to scaling our regulated bridging book before launching other revolutionising products.”

Nick Hilton, Director of Lending, added:

“The regulated bridging market is ripe for disruption and we believe we have the team in place to replicate the success we have enjoyed in the unregulated space, whilst remaining highly disciplined in our underwriting processes.”