The Private Rented Sector (PRS), ‘Housing the Nation’ and the future of the residential sector were key themes on the day at Celtic Manor, Newport.

Speakers also represented the audience who came from leading house-builders, investors, landowners, consultants, as well as the Housing Minister, Mark Prisk MP.

Prisk announced the extra £400 million fund was for the second phase of the government’s Build-to-Rent scheme, which went live in conjunction with his announcement. Speaking at the conference, the Minister ruled out private rented sector use class stating that it would be “too much of a deterrent at this stage”.

Mark Easton, BBC Home Correspondent, was the Chair for the day and the audience heard Frederik Nerbrand, Managing Director – Global Head of Allocation – at HSBC, explain how the financial conditions are better in the UK despite credit impulse peaking. He likened bank lending to stock indicators and described how the UK is still competitive as a result of the global credit impulse falling.

It attracted over 1,000 delegates from across the residential property sector, including representatives from the bridging sector with Dragonfly Property Finance and Omni Capital. Dragonfly Property finance was actually the only lender exhibitor at the conference.

After making a productive appearance at RESI 2012, Omni Capital expanded its presence at this year's event with four of the lender's senior management team attending.

Colin Sanders, Omni Capital's CEO, observed: "This was my first time at RESI  and I was impressed by the scale, scope and professionalism of the event. Taking a couple of days out of the office must have a purpose, and I particularly wanted to hear for myself what it is that residential property professionals are looking for from lenders right now, and how they rate the sector's future prospects."

He added: "While I enjoyed and gained from some of the excellent formal presentations - particularly those focused on sector dynamics and the macro-economic outlook - I was surprised by the lack of discussion regarding funding. We constantly hear from our partners and customers that mainstream funding remains severely constrained for all but very well-established and successful developers and investors. Not to include this critical subject on the conference agenda therefore strikes me as rather odd and a disappointing omission."

Jonathan Samuels, CEO of Dragonfly Property Finance, said: "The day was great and there was over 1,000 delegates there, including housebuilders, lawyers, and institutional property firms. Funding wasn't on the agenda, it was very much focused on the PRS. I thought the economic sessions were very intriguing on a macro level.

"We found it useful to connect with a broad range of professionals in the private residential sector and our brand name got out there too. I think people were pleased to see a non-traditional lender there in force, and in fact we were the only lender there at all."

"A big take-away for me," said Sanders, "is the growing importance of the Private Rented Sector. Currently underserved with funding, specialist lenders able to understand its nuances serve to gain by building close ties with experienced developers being encouraged into PRS by the relaxation in planning regulations, and the current limitations of the mortgage market and knock-on effect on home ownership."

Lucian Cook, Head of UK Residential Research at Savills, described how the economy and housing market has been through a state of a hangover, it is now seemingly in a “groundhog day” phase, and then looked towards whether there would be a bubble or rocket. The following slides were a real eye-opener in particular.

Predictions surfaced that more than 600,000 households will be created in the private rented sector between 2014 and 2016, despite government programmes to boost home ownership.

The development finance sector is one is which many within bridging finance will take a closer look at as a result of the forecasted demand and predicted strength within the PRS market.