At Truffle Specialist Finance we have been extremely busy over the past year and in my area of expertise — bridging finance — 2023 was a record year for us.

I wasn’t focusing on what other packagers were doing, but instead was concentrating on providing brokers and clients with the best short-term lending solution for their particular requirements.

With that in mind, it was interesting to read the latest figures from the Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL), covering the fourth quarter of 2023.

The ASTL revealed that bridging loan books reached another record high in Q4 2023, with completions up by 18.4% on the third quarter of the year to reach £1.69bn.

These figures are certainly good for the sector, highlighting the importance of short-term lending options for investors, landlords, developers and homeowners — but they also proved to us at Truffle that we’ve been significantly outperforming the market.

For us, 2023 was a huge year, with an almost 200% increase in the amount of bridging business written and number of completed cases compared to 2022. 

Meanwhile, in its press statement the ASTL didn’t drill down into specific areas of short-term lending which have seen the most demand over recent months, but for us, we saw and are still seeing healthy amounts of applications for both regulated and non-regulated bridging (as both first and second charges).

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Development exit arguably remains the “hottest” area, however, and we are not seeing any drop-off in demand for this finance, despite many people predicting it would tail off following the end of the pandemic and its associated delays to developments.

Of course, as a brand, Truffle Specialist Finance is in its relative infancy, having rebranded from Pink Pig Loans in March 2022.

But growth isn’t guaranteed for any firm, large or small, young or old. If anything, we’ve had to work harder in order to prove ourselves with brokers and clients.

I think our growth now shows that brokers do in fact recognise Truffle Specialist Finance as a business which can successfully place their bridging cases, regardless of the complexity. 

I also think that our strategy towards brokers and their clients’ cases is paying off.

The majority of our introducers are mortgage brokers, and they are spread across all the four nations of the UK.

Our business isn’t skewed towards any one area of the country and, consequently, if London or Manchester (for example) see a cooling off in demand for bridging, then we aren’t disproportionately affected by a drop in applications from these areas. 

Our geographic spread also means that we deal with cases of all sizes; we don’t turn our backs on “small” loans and will arrange bridging loans from just £30,000, which may not go a long way in the capital but can help a client no end in other areas of the country.

It’s therefore of no surprise to me that we are taking on new brokers every day and last year completed deals with over 40 different firms alone.

On the back of our success in 2023, we’re accelerated our growth plans for this year, and are now looking to double to size of our bridging team.

It’s great to hear that the bridging sector remains strong and healthy, but at Truffle we will continue to strive to outperform the market and not rest on our laurels; reputations are earned from hard work and by delivering, time and time again.