A brand new lender offering rates from 0.85 per cent has launched into the bridging and development finance market…

Oblix Capital, which officially launched in April, will initially focus on the unregulated side of the market. This includes unregulated residential investment properties, commercial properties, residential refurbishment projects (non-structural) as well as residential development projects where structural changes are required.

From a geographic perspective, Oblix will start to concentrate on the whole of England and part of the Welsh market intialy with rates start from 0.85 per cent and LTVs of up to 75 per cent. The loan sizes on offer range from £30,000 up to a maximum loan of £2 million.

Products

The Team

Oblix Capital is made up of professionals from the commercial finance industry and was founded by CEO Rishi Passi.

Rishi has been an investor and developer in the global real estate markets for over 13 years, and this combination of experience means that the team is able to look at applications from a property professional’s perspective at the same time as applying the risk controls that are needed from a mortgage lending perspective.

Rishi said: “Being very new, the team only consist of three people at present, with a fourth starting in May, and it shall remain a core trait of our business strategy to keep a streamlined team in order to maintain accountability to our third party providers by allowing them to reach out to the decision makers.”

Funding

“Oblix has the ability to stick out in the market due to the private nature of its funding lines. Ultimately the decisions and appetite to lend rests solely with the company. This lack of corporate layering surrounding decision making allows us to move swiftly on cases and think outside the box,” explained Rishi.

Rishi commented: “We are sufficiently funded at the moment, and do not have a set limit on the size of our book. I don’t believe the sky is the limit but more a target to aspire too. We have very ambitious growth plans but are very cautious of trying to grow too quickly, hence our staged growth strategy.

Loan Book

Initially Oblix Capital’s aim is to organically build up its loan book. Rishi told B&C that this “is easily achievable with the product range that we currently offer”.

He added: “I am pleased to say that Oblix has gotten off to a very good start, ahead of schedule, with a pipeline of loans already within the legal framework.

“Going forward, we will look to expand our product offering by entering the regulated markets as well as the 2nd charge market. Following this, we have a growth plan which is currently under consideration and is something we look forward to discussing closer to the time.”

Strategy

Oblix is currently assessing a number of industry trade associations, such as the NACFB, the AOBP and ASTL.

“Generally we believe the market for alternative well-serviced finance is going to grow as the mainstream banks battle the recent laws and restrictions placed against them. In addition we believe the requirement for this type of lending will continue to increase as the property market in general continues with its upward moving swing in terms of volume and pricing. This in itself brings more and more activity into the market,” Rishi said to B&C..

The lender is currently working with various legal and valuation providers, but will continue to monitor this throughout the course of its development.

Rishi concluded: “Naturally, we are happy to accept deals direct from broker partners at this juncture but ultimately our goal is to establish a panel of packagers/distributors that we can forge ongoing relationships with. Ultimately, we envisage a lot of these relationships being forged out of the deals we fund for our brokers within this initial launch period.”