Cover Story
Personal, practical and precise
It was only a matter of time before the residential mortgage lenders woke up to the value available in the bridging sector. Sarah Davidson talks to Precise Mortgages’ Alan Cleary about why the lender decided the time to launch a short-term proposition was ripe
Picture this: one £3m house in the depths of the Midlands countryside, one digital camera to record the condition of said house, and one Alan Cleary on his way home through Solihull from Precise’s Wolverhampton-based office taking photos.
Admittedly this isn’t the kind of service every deal gets but it tells you something about the way this lender does business. It’s personal. First some context: just over a
year ago, Cleary and his team had launched a buy-to-let lender from scratch making it the first new non- bank lender to get approval from the Financial Services Authority since the credit crunch hit in 2007. Nine months later Precise
achieved what few thought possible, a licence to lend on fully regulated residential mortgage contracts. Last month, it launched a short-term proposition offering intermediaries access to the lowest bridging rates on the market.
But despite an acute 28 BrIDgINg INTrODUCer july 2011
understanding of the need to lend responsibly to consumers on the one hand, Cleary knows that bridging requires a different sort of responsibility. In residential lending it’s all about the borrower’s affordability. In bridging, it is about the exit – be it sale of a property or refinance on a longer-term basis. Hence the camera.
But ensuring the quality of a deal and underwriting risk responsibly aside, Precise is trying to bring a balance of service and common sense to the bridging market – at prices brokers can’t resist. “The first question we had to
answer when we decided to enter the short-term market was, why would a broker use us?” says Cleary. “There are some good lenders out there so we have to be better to get brokers to notice us. We came up with five reasons: pricing, criteria, first class service, competitive proc fees and slick branding. “Our plan is to make a splash by having the right pricing strategy,
right mix of criteria and great service. We haven’t got a specific market share target for this year but we are in this market to lend.” He is antsy about disclosing the “significant sum” his American private equity backers have given him to lend in the short-term sector but suffice it to say, Cleary is confident Precise’s pricing will give them market share fairly quickly. Its launch products – aimed at
developers and landlords – include a standard residential bridge at 0.75% a month under 50% loan to value, the lowest bridging rate in the UK. On standard residential bridging deals up to 65% LTV Precise charges 0.9% per month and 1.1% up to 75% LTV.
There is a light refurbishment product from 40% LTV at 0.9% a month up to 70% LTV at a higher rate and a heavy refurb product. Loan terms extend from one to 18 months.
One of the more enthusiastically received features of Precise’s
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