The platform — which specialises in bridging finance and commercial mortgages — has gone live with over 40 lenders.

Its aim is to simplify the process for borrowers and drive competition among lenders. 

Borrowers will be able to view products from some of the leading providers, sometimes not available through traditional brokers, without having to surrender personal details to access rates on the site. 

Through Propp’s optimisation service, bespoke quotes are negotiated for and presented back to borrowers within 24 hours.

•   B&C interviews Josh Levy on Ultimate Finance's refreshed residential bridging product range
•   Bridging & Commercial Magazine opens submissions for 2021 Power List
•   Timsco Finance aims to offer regulated bridging advice early next year

The leadership team powering the platform have a combined 60 years’ experience in the property space, and previously worked together in senior roles at John Charcol. 

Paul Elliott, managing director at Propp, is responsible for business development, while Ben Larkin, chief technical officer, will be delivering the business’s mission to drive digital transformation and efficiencies for its customers. 

Peter Williams, the platform’s CEO (pictured above), said: “Propp has been purpose built to shake up the archaic specialist property finance space and bring it in line with the demands of today’s borrowers, who are accustomed to the convenience and transparency of automated technologies and instant, high quality customer service. 

“For too long the industry has rested on its laurels when it comes to automation and real transparency for its customers. 

“The seasoned team we’ve built is committed to leading the industry by example. 

“We’re excited to see what the next 12 months has in store for Propp and our customers who will be looking to us to provide them with the best possible deal during these unusual times.”

Propp was born out of a shared desire to evolve the specialist property finance market, which the platform intends to facilitate in the following ways:  

• cost-saving: it claims it can save borrowers an average of over £9,400 per year, based on the negotiated interest rate, due to its optimisation service
• time-saving: the average time to complete a bridging loan has risen to 52 days. Propp states it can reduce this “significantly” by digitising much of the process, including rate negotiations, digital signatures, and electronic identification
• choice: it aims to remove bias towards preferred lenders and certain types of agreements via access to a wider pool of providers, giving customers more options and better control.

Tomer Aboody, director at MT Finance, commented that the creation of Propp was “fantastic”. 

“The website is very user-friendly and gives borrowers a solid spread of the lenders currently operating within the specialist property finance market. 

“The process is extremely transparent, delivering a rationale to every search result and even provides users with a clear indication of savings on each loan. 

“As a lender, it’s encouraging to see innovation in the property finance market that will enable us to consider more applications.”

Mike Stenhouse, property developer and host and producer of Inside Property Investing podcast, recently tried Propp for a development finance application.

“I cannot speak highly enough of the process,” he said.

“Quick responses, very detailed information on the different lenders we could pick from, and an almost intense (in a very positive way) follow-up from the Propp team to ensure the application progressed to completion quickly. 

“They beat rates we'd seen from brokers by several 10ths of a percent, saving us thousands of pounds across the project duration, and we felt like we had much better clarity on who the right lender was for us."