News

Despite many taking holidays, summer always sees a big push in wanting to have long-running projects completed before autumn, new purchases complete or refinance of existing debt lined up. September sees the return of the children to school and an appetite for new projects increases so anything lingering must be completed. There is a distinct appetite in the market now to move forward after a couple of years of uncertainty and hesitancy. People have adjusted to interest rates and whilst inflation is still biting many, the cost of materials has stabilised along with the interest rates. What this means for many investors, business owners and developers is a desire to move forward rather than hold up plans.

New commercial and semi-commercial investors

We have seen an increased appetite for individuals entering the market, perhaps for the first time investing in commercial and semi-commercial projects. Market conditions and the availability of projects were perhaps limited in the past for these investors on the residential side but coupled with increasingly favourable economic conditions and several residential lenders now offering finance projects to meet demand, this has enabled new investors to expand into semi-commercial or mixed-used property investment. When supporting the IFAs and introducers we work alongside, the Omega team always ensure that we gain a full understanding of precisely how the space within the property will be divided because we know how important this is from the lender’s perspective.

We stress to our partners that lenders often have very specific criteria regarding the split of commercial to residential ratio. Some of the lending criteria will be based on floor space, others on the property value whereas others will stipulate that a minimum 2-year residual lease length is required on the commercial element. There are other layers to the terms we can secure such as considering differing levels of experience required to support each property type.
Not all brokers will identify such at the outset, which wastes both client time and money and can lead to inaccurate terms being quoted or even applied for.

How we support our partners

The brokers and networks we support want to offer their clients a broad range of finance options that can include these types of properties. The clients are of course yours, but we just ensure that the right level of depth and understanding has gone into any assessment of the client and the property type. Our years of experience and understanding of the products in the market mean we know how important it is to ensure the terms quoted for a specific client and their unique property are accurate.

Getting projects over the line by the end of summer

We know for many developers; the pressure is mounting to complete projects by the end of the summer so it’s best to have a conversation today and not defer until the last minute. There is a range of ways this can be facilitated including short-term loans and bridging finance.

The key is to talk to us today and don’t leave it until the deadline is looming. If you have all the details we referred to earlier in the blog, contact one of the team and let’s get you terms from one of the lenders we have relationships with.