The first speaker, Faisal Choudhry of Savills, provided his outlook on the UK property market and acknowledged that the “market will be difficult over the next few years”.

Faisal also highlighted that buy-to-let investors face a number of challenges due to increased mortgage regulation, which is likely to impact portfolio landlords due to higher stamp duty and restrictions on tax relief on interest payments.

Lorna O’Brien offered the FCA’s viewpoint on the bridging sector.

Although the regulator could only comment on regulated deals in the market, the outlook was generally positive.

Lorna stated that bridging finance had “come a long way” but did warn that any slowdown in the buy-to-let sector could impact bridging.

Rob Lankey, the former NACFB interim CEO, illustrated his extensive knowledge of the banking and property finance market and suggested that communication needed to improve among brokers and lenders.

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Michael Booth QC gave his analysis on the world of fraud and highlighted that vigilance was always important and no one should be above suspicion.

Peter Andrews, the local agent of the Bank of England, contributed an off-the-record briefing on the economic outlook based on the Monetary Policy Committee’s latest inflation report.

Tim Shipman, the political editor of the Sunday Times, brought the conference to a close by highlighting the political turmoil currently dominating Brexit negotiations.

“Once again our conference was packed with interesting sector, political and economic insight from our expert speakers,” said Benson Hersch, chief executive of the ASTL.

“While the discussion was wide ranging, the general consensus was that the bridging sector is in good shape.

“However, with uncertainty continuing to dominate the economy and a number of challenges on the horizon, lenders and brokers will need to adapt to the ever-changing environment.”