"The past 18 months have been very challenging in the market. We are seeing a lot of extensions and speaking with many developers with facilities that are coming close to expiry."
- Yann Murciano, CEO at Blend
Specialist development finance lender, Blend, has widened its existing product offering with the launch of a new bridge product to support developers.
The exit bridge is aimed at property developers with completed residential projects who are facing the expiry of their existing loan facilities with lenders who do not want to carry the project for longer. The new product is designed to take pressure off developers who have been affected by challenging market conditions and allow them to carry their completed projects until a fair sale price is achieved.
Blend’s new bridge product provides facilities of between £500,000 and £5 million, with LTVs between 70% and 75%, and is priced at 0.95%-1.1% per month. In some cases, Blend can release some equity so that developers can start funding their next project.
The new product launch comes following the announcement, last week, that Blend has secured a new institutional funding line in the form of committed capital to further support property developers.
Yann Murciano, CEO at Blend, commented: “For the past seven years, Blend has been supporting mid-size property developers across the UK, and we are very proud to say that we’ve never had to appoint a receiver on any of our developers. Have there been issues with the projects we’ve funded? Yes, undoubtedly. But our business model is based on supporting developers and working with them, not against them. So, where our developers have faced issues with their schemes, we have worked closely with them to find solutions that help them overcome the challenges. That collaboration has been, and continues to be the cornerstone to our business, and is the reason we see repeat developers wanting to work with us.
"The past 18 months have been very challenging in the market. We are seeing a lot of extensions and speaking with many developers with facilities that are coming close to expiry. The launch of our new bridge sends a strong message to those developers: we want to work with you and support you. We want to give you enough time to market your property at the right price, rather than having to fire sale or face the expiry of your facility, which often comes with extremely high default rates and fees.”
