Paula Purdy, Head of Sales – Bridging
Green shoots. A phrase often used to describe those early signs of recovery when emerging from a period of economic gloom.
Here at UTB, as we leave January behind and race towards Spring’s longer days, I am encouraged to hear the office abuzz with positivity, both for our strong start in January and a growing sense that 2024 could be a very good year. Given what a torrid year 2023 was for most people, it’s an understatement to say this sunnier mood is more than welcome!
Many experts who suggested that rocketing interest rates and economic volatility would send house prices into a tail-spin have been pleasantly surprised by the property market’s resilience. We have seen this for ourselves at UTB, having started 2024 with a surge in demand for all types of bridging loans. Confidence is returning to the market.
In response to this increasing demand, we are employing our common-sense approach and encouraging our skilled and knowledgeable people to create competitive bespoke solutions for customers’ short term borrowing needs. In the second half of last year, we took the bold step of restructuring bridging underwriting into two dedicated non-regulated and regulated teams, staffed and managed by people who possess the right knowledge and skills to best deliver two very different types of bridging loan with speed and efficiency.
We also reviewed our products to ensure that our offering, our service and our processes are improving broker and borrower journeys and outcomes.
As a result…
- we now have a dedicated and appropriately skilled underwriting team for non-regulated bridging
- we implemented and work to a set of strong SLAs
- we refreshed and relaunched a market leading product offering to customers in England, Wales & all mainland Scotland postcodes
- we implemented enhancements to our Servicing team
- and set ourselves stretching targets for new business and service level improvements this year
Of course, we won’t succeed alone. Our intermediary partners are key to growing our business and, ultimately, we can all be more successful by working together. Close collaboration will help us to address any challenges that emerge and enable us to capitalise on opportunities. We are committed to strengthening and growing our broker relationships in 2024. By pooling our resources, our knowledge and our expertise, we can continue to improve our service to customers and drive sustainable growth in this exciting and dynamic industry.