Bridging loans are becoming increasingly in demand with the applications rate seeing a record-breaking increase over the first quarter of this year. However, the completion rates have recorded the worst quarterly figures since Q3 2017.
A report from The Association of Short-Term Lenders (ASTL) has shown that the bridging loan applications of Q1 this year have seen an increase of 13.6% since Q4 2018, coming to over £5.96 billion. This is a 6.9% increase on the mirroring quarter from the previous year.
As for the whole year, ending in March 2019, the application rate came to £21.8 billion.
Collated by analysts from ASTL, the figures highlight that the bridging lender loan books hit £4.14 billion in Q1 2019 which is a growth of 7.9% from Q4 2018.
The total value of completed bridging loan applications throughout the first quarter of 2019 came to £898.5m. This was a 13.1% weakening from the audit of the same period last year.
It is crucial to note that £92 million of the total figure included the development loans and the additional £206.6 million of non-bridging development loans from ASTL.
Benson Hersch, the CEO of the ASTL, said: “The results for Q1 2019 were a mixed bag. For completions, this was the lowest result since Q3 2017. On the other hand, the loan book total is the highest since Q1 2018 and the applications were the highest ever. We would expect this high value of completions to result in improved completions in Q2 2019.”
While fluctuating in consistency, these figures show a promising future for bridging loans, applications and completions.