Sterling Property Finance, which is still in its soft launch phase, has been trading now for four months. The lender lowered its rates from 1.15 per cent to 0.9 per cent off the back of listening to its introducing brokers since entering the market.

The new 0.95 per cent rates apply to its vanilla bridging products on first charge non-main residential properties. The new rate will be applicable to most applications, unless the credit score doesn’t fit.

Within three hours of announcing the change in its bridging rates, the lender has received six applications, all of them going through to the DIP stage.

Sterling facilitates funding for first and second charge bridging, mezzanine finance and development funding; the latter has made up 65 to 70 per cent of the lender’s loan book to date.

In regards to the development finance side of the business, it typically lends up to 65 per cent GDV for deals.

Sterling is a flexible entity and to that extent does not have a rigid set of criteria. It looks at each case individually and will take commercial views on application when discussing them internally with its five-strong credit committee.

James Gibbs, Business Development Manager, told B&C: “In terms of geographical reach, we started off the proposition within the M25, however the first loan we drew down on was actually in Manchester.”

Sterling has a single financial backer and has a total loan capital of £25 million. It has a financial arrangement which means the lender can top this amount up, increasing flexibility and letting it offer larger loan sizes.

On its launch, Sterling’s maximum loan size was £350,000; this has now been increased to £500,000.

Anthony Fane, Director of Sterling Property Finance, said: ”Our costs of funds are very competitive within the market and are certainly looking at ways to enhance our products and rates.

“We will lend anywhere in the UK, if the liquidity is right and have LTVs of up to 75 per cent.

“We entered the market because we have a lower cost of funding compared to competitors within the market and don’t charge exit fees. As more mainstream lenders get more involved in funding again the days of exit fees are long gone.

“We’re one of the tightest priced bridging and development lenders within the marketplace and our relationships with our brokers are key, and engaging with them is central to our plans.

The lender charges a two per cent arrangement fee, with 1.5 per cent of that going to the introducing broker. It also has a trail commission of 0.15 per cent per month.

The lender does not have an official panel in place, although it will look to review the possibility of this in time. De Villiers is one of the more prominent valuers being used by the lender and a new partnership has just been signed with Leeds-based law firm Blacks Connect.

The lender is looking to raise its maximum loan size by two or three times over the next 12 months, meaning that it’ll raise to £1 million to £1.5 million.

Antony added: “We only started processing deals in July and have advanced around £4 million to £5 million to date, with an average loan currently at the £350,000/£400,000 level.

“I believe that within 12 months, this will be in the region of £40 million, and in our second year, our target will be a £100 million loan book.”