The first loan on the Walker Crips regulated bridging fund has been completed, in a deal that sees Mayfair Bridging becoming the first lender to benefit from the facility.

Mayfair Bridging has completed a 12 month regulated bridging facility in Surrey, using the new Walker Crips bridging fund launched just six weeks ago.

The landmark fund which provides regulated funding for three UK bridging lenders has attracted considerable interest since its launch, with this deal marking the first drawdown on the facility.

The loan was secured against a £250,000 property in Surrey, a first charge on a property which has been described by James Allen, the Investment Manager, as a “classic bridging deal”.

The client, looking to obtain funding for residential renovations, received the money within just six days of initial contact.

Speaking on the first completion, and the fund moving forward, James Allen, Investment Manager for TB Walker Crips, said: “This kind of deal is exactly the type of situation that we set out to obtain; it’s great to see nearly two years of work finally going from the theoretical to the practical.”

“All the systems that we have put in place to make the investment as secure as possible have now been put to the test and have been shown to be working exactly as designed.

“Having the controls and contingency measures in place at the launch of the Fund allows us to go forward with confidence.”

Due to the complexity of the fund, inevitably there is a range of criteria that must be check boxed before funding can take place in its usual format.

Upon receiving details of the deal, internal checks are performed by Walker Crips, before the deal is then referred on to the ACD for regulation checks, a process that can take anything up to 24 hours.

In details disclosed to B&C, it was reported that there are around 40 different checks that must be performed, before funding can take place.

B&C exclusively announced the launch of the first ever regulated bridging fund back in July, with the launch coming on the 1st of August.

After 18-months of developing the TB Walker Crips Income from Short Term Lending Fund, the Alternative Investments division of Walker Crips was notified that the fund had attained FCA authorisation on Wednesday 16th June 2013.

The TB Walker Crips Income from Short Term Lending Fund aims to have funding lines of £30 million for its three specialist lender partners selected for the launch in the first year.

Though, the fund will not allow Bridgebank, Century Capital or Mayfair to have more than 50 per cent of the funding available to them at any one time, as a prudent spread of risk.

The fund aims to grow to £300 million over the next three to four years, with a benchmark end figure in sight of £500 million.

Walker Crips and its team of four, headed up by James Allen, has obtained steady funding since its launch, with the company receiving interest from a much wider audience than originally predicted.

Subsequently, James has already outlined plans to secure more staff to work on the fund, with many industry figures all watching its progression very closely.

Speaking on the landmark deal, Yasin Patel, Chief Executive of Mayfair Bridging, said: “I’m delighted to have secured our first completion with this fund. We of course hope that this is the first of many on what is likely the future for the market.

“We’ve been doing deals like this for years and to have this new fund is of course very beneficial to our loan amounts and terms.”