Following two hugely successful road shows in Bristol and Birmingham, the third stop on Cheval’s Blue Skies Bridging road show was London.
Held at the five-star Radisson Mountbatten hotel in Covent Garden, Central London last Thursday (1st of July) brokers flocked from all parts of the capital and its surrounding areas to attend the in-depth bridging finance workshop.
Although many might think that mortgage brokers operating in the big city would be more clued up about alternative and specialist forms of finance than their counterparts at previous road show stops, they would be mistaken. A third of attending brokers stated that they had never used bridging finance before, whilst more than half said that they had only done bridging deals “infrequently” or “just once”.
The Watford-based short term lender, Cheval, focused their presentation on the many different uses of bridging loans and explained how bridging can be utilised in situations where mainstream mortgages may be unavailable to borrowers or may not be obtained quickly enough.
Taking brokers through the earning potential on bridging loan deals, Cheval’s National Sales Manager, Gareth Lewis, also introduced the lender’s brand new initiative – the Cheval Club.
The Cheval Club is being rolled out exclusively to brokers attending Blue Skies Bridging seminars. Armed with a shiny, credit card-style club card with their unique registration number on it, Blue Skies brokers can now have access to an exclusive interest rate on 1st charge deals, an additional income payable upon completion of a bridging loan and entry into a quarterly members prize draw.
Tucking his Cheval club card safely into his wallet, broker Steven Levene, from Horizon Financial Solutions, said: “I’ve found the seminar very easy to understand; it was well explained and had good case scenarios as well. I’ve never done bridging loans before but now I understand it fully and have a deal lined up.”
Another attendee, Nick Clark from Honister Partners, speaking at the networking buffet lunch afterwards, added: “It’s been a very constructive morning, it reminds you of all the areas where bridging can be used, such as probate issues, which I had never considered before.”
Commenting on the day, Gavin Diamond, Head of Finance at Cheval, said: “Today has been very good, very interactive with lots of questions. Our round table discussions worked particularly well and hopefully we’ll be the first port of call for any bridging deals that these brokers have in the future.”
Allan Kay, CEO of Cheval, confirmed that the London show had been an overwhelming success. “Brokers have been coming up to me today and thanking us for putting this on. It’s the first road show dedicated solely to bridging finance and it looks like it was long overdue!”
· The next Blue Skies Bridging Seminar will be held in Manchester on Thursday the 16th of September at the Radisson Edwardian hotel in the city centre. To book your place at this morning event click here
Leave a comment