Four of the six months were consecutive record months in terms of value and volume of loans written, with lending more than double that of H1 2016.

Roma also revealed that conversions to funded transactions were at their highest ever levels following the introduction of its new fast-track process.

The bridging and development finance lender put its success down to extending its product offering to acquire more business from a broader range of introducers and customers.

Roma has seen large gains in commercial-to-residential conversions with borrowers being more creative in finding alternative uses for pubs and care homes.

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“We have worked hard on our new fast-track process, which has seen us improve the time to pay out and build upon our excellent service levels, highlighted by a recent industry award for service excellence,” said Scott Marshall, managing director at Roma (pictured above).

“Our underwriting team has been strengthened to cater for the increased demand and we remain pragmatic and timely with our lending decisions, which is well received by our loyal introducer base.”

Roma said its funding lines remained strong, with multiple institutional sources and private funding that still catered for specialist criteria and a wide variety of property types.

“Despite a number of new lenders coming into the short-term lending space, our knowledge of the complexities of bridging cases and our ability to be pragmatic when challenged means we still remain a solid choice for those looking to acquire investment properties quickly, renovate them or change their use,” added Scott.

“We are also finding the number of introducers we’re working with on multiple projects increasing, which is very satisfying in such a competitive market.”