Wealthy people turn to secure lenders for capital
Increasing numbers of wealthy people are taking out secured loans because strict mortgage lending criteria has made it difficult for them to raise money through more traditional means, Dave Pinnington has said.
Mr Pinnington, business development director for V Loans, a national intermediary secured loans packager, reported a surge in enquiries from brokers new to secured loans with wealthy clients looking for finance to raise capital because they have not been able to remortgage their properties.
Last year the number of these so-called ‘prime cases’ was 35 per cent of V Loans’ total business. In 2012, this figure grew to more than 60 per cent of all applications.
Mr Pinnington said: “The business split between prime and non-prime applicants has completely switched round.
“The removal of the interest-only option by many first charge lenders and the difficulties in remortgaging for capital raising purposes, not to mention the hurdles that need to be jumped to get a further advance, has led to the influx of enquiries we are now seeing from prime borrowers who would normally have used the remortgage route.”
There is also more competition in the secured lending space than there has been in previous years. This has led to better rates for customers, which has also helped drive demand.
Robert Sinclair, chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, said stringent mortgage lending criteria is creating a “great opportunity” for the second charge market to support good applicants.
He said: “Lenders in the first mortgage market have tightened their lending criteria considerably in the last couple of years. Many have aligned their underwriting with some of the more extreme of the mortgage market review proposals, which were never likely to see the light of day.
“This background combined with continuing liquidity issues in the market means that many creditworthy individuals are struggling to get a further advance from their existing lender or obtain new funding. This provides a great opportunity for the second charge market to support good applicants.”
Paul Aitken, chief executive of short-term lender borro, recently spoke to Financial Adviser’s news editor Simoney Girard about the lack of financing in the current market and the options for individuals looking for alternative funding solutions.