As part of the revamp, the specialist lender has increased its maximum loan size for commercial property, second-charge and complex bridging to £10m.
It has also upped the maximum loan size for land with planning bridging facilities to £3m.
In addition, Catalyst has made its commercial-to-residential conversion bridging product available at 70% OMV where planning is in place, and up to 65% OMV where no planning is in place, but there is an obvious C3 residential/mixed-use opportunity.
Meanwhile, its heavy refurbishment finance product is now available at 75% of OMV and offers loans up to £7.5m — the construction budget element of the loan is limited to £3m and 50% of GDV.
There is also no longer a restriction on the maximum sq ft expansion, and only one original wall is required to remain standing throughout the construction process and into the finished property.
Catalyst has also made changes to its criteria for clients — experienced borrowers are now required to demonstrate three similar developments in the last five years (previously two years).
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They can still lean on their contractor’s experience, subject to satisfactory evidence.
In addition, there is no LTV reduction for capital raising borrowers taking cash out, where the risk makes commercial sense.
Borrowers capital raising against an unencumbered property is not classed as a ‘cash out’.
Chris Fairfax, CEO at Catalyst (pictured above), said: “We are really excited to launch a number of product improvements in bridging, development and refurbishment.
“The business has experienced high growth since launch in 2018 and we have invested heavily in technology, human resource, and distribution partners to create a platform that is confident and ready to handle our next stage of growth.
“This growth will be fuelled by our ability to say ‘yes’ to an increasing amount of excellent risk opportunities moving forward.
“Our company’s motto is ‘never miss a good opportunity’ and this is now more meaningful than ever.
“I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all capital partners that have, and continue, to support Catalyst and we are incredibly grateful to our broker partners who continue to trust us to deliver.”
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