B&C spoke to Jade Keval, sales director (pictured above), and Daniela Gallucci, head of marketing at Somo about why now was the right time for the company to venture further into the fist-charge arena with its prime product at a time when they saw alternative lending moving more into the mainstream finance world.

“We're still seeing just as many second charge loans. the whole plan of solo Prime is to be able to attract more of the first charge business which has always been there,” said Jade.

She continued, “we're always being called and asked for it, which is why we've developed the product.”

The product’s features include rates from 0.89% and LTVs up to 75%, alongside zero legal fees until completion and a ‘no completion, no fee guarantee’, with the offering also based on a property’s open market value rather than that of its 180- or 90-day.

With the introduction of Somo Prime, the hope is that this will showcase the firm’s offering outside its second-charge products, which Daniela feels they have become renowned for.

“I think that being almost famous for second charge becomes our greatest strength, but also a bit of a weakness because you become the lender who the broker lifts the phone to you when they've got a second charge deal on the table,” she said.

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Daniela continued, “actually, we do everything else very well too. It's just we've refined it now into a really clear proposition for prime for first charge borrowing.”

It’s not only the diversification of the company’s product offering which it wants to showcase, but how these products could bring bridging lending further into the mainstream.

“We're on a bit of a mission to make taking a bridging loan out as normal and as credible and as simple and straightforward as walking into a high street bank and doing it there,” said Daniela.

“What we are finding now is that more and more borrowers who we would have expected to go and get a high street lending solution are actually turning to alternative lending, and therefore your product has to fall in line with that.”

 “Bridging is pulling itself up by the bootstraps and is becoming a more and more credible way of borrowing,” continued Daniela.

Jade also saw that the wider market was beginning to sway in favour of specialist finance lending as the economic landscape continued to pose challenges to borrowers.

“Over the last 12 months, we've seen the high street lenders willing to lend less, interest rates going up and down and fluctuating.

“So, I think people are turning more to alternative lenders than they ever, ever have.”

Jade saw moving further into the first-charge space as a logical step at a time when she believed bridging was becoming more well known due to more accessible finance to borrowers at “realistic rates”.

While Jade noted that the firm continued to see a healthy flow of second-charge business, Somo’s prime product was designed to cement a position deeper into the first-charge space — and at a time when market uncertainty persists, Jade sees opportunity for alternative lending.

“The alternative sector has always prospered through these events… so I think I think we're only going to get better and see more business.”