The principal lender will be utilising short-form valuations for residential property in major cities with a value of up to £500,000 (£750,000 in London), including for light refurbishment.

Different from an AVM or desktop valuation, it involves a physical valuation to take place with a licenced valuer.

However, unlike the more traditional long-form valuation, it is a standard template that captures the salient property information—including comparables—to enable a lender's credit team to make a solid decision as to whether the property would be a suitable asset.

The costs are generally much lower than a long-form report, which means Catalyst can provide a competitive fee scale for the less complex property transactions that it is seeing.

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The lender stated that it will also support its credit function capacity and ability for growth.

“At Catalyst, we are always looking for ways to improve our bridging finance proposition for our broker partners and their clients,” said Matt Gillon, head of credit at Catalyst Property Finance (pictured above).

“We have a number of new improvement initiatives to announce in 2020 and into 2021; the first being the acceptance of short-form valuations for suitable properties.

“Being able to utilise [these] will allow us to be even more efficient and cost-effective. 

“One of the benefits is that they speed up the loan application process, typically by two to three days, which is a huge advantage for those borrowers needing quick access to finance.”