<
p>New buy-to-let and specialist lender, Fleet Mortgages, is planning to launch into the commercial mortgage market.
After recently becoming a patron of the NACFB, Fleet is looking to make a real difference and has already set the industry alight by issuing its first mortgage offer within 10 working days.
Writing in the recent NACFB newsletter, Chief Executive, Bob Young, said it aims to enter the commercial sector and show the quality of its service and experience as it looks to broaden to encompass the whole market.
B&C caught up with Bob Young to tell more about the new firm and Bob has acknowledged that its entrance into the market has happened very quickly.
“Somehow, for reasons that sometimes escape even me, we have brought Fleet Mortgages to market in nigh-on record time,” Bob said.
However, the launch has taken a considerable amount of work and the support of a dedicated team of people and suppliers.
“The reason for such a speedy turnaround has much to do with the buy-to-let market as it currently stands, the future for it, and those borrowers who we believe – even in a buoyant sector – were still being underserved,” Bob added.
“In its simplest terms, these are the experienced landlords, or the players who are active in buy-to-let professionally and are much more likely to be looking for loans for limited companies and/or houses of multiple occupation (HMOs).”
When the Fleet team looked at the sector - the existing players, the distributors and the clients – they thought they could see a niche, which motivated them to set up the new firm in less than four months.
“In developing our product range we wanted to offer simplicity, competitiveness and a clear understanding of where we are positioned,” Bob said.
While Fleet is offering core, residential buy-to-let loans, the firm also knows that the experienced landlords often work in areas which cannot be described as this.
“While our criteria is easy to understand and clear, we have built in a fair degree of flexibility with a hugely experienced sales team and underwriting department that has been there, done it, and picked-up the t-shirt,” Bob added.
“We are priding ourselves on our ability to react quickly with either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when a particular case is presented and we know this goes down incredibly well with the broker community as you don’t want to be left for weeks on end without an answer.”
Bob feels that because, although the firm is new the people working within it have been “around the block”, and so clients will have confidence and trust in the company's service.
“Lenders often pay lip-service to service levels but they are key to what we do and ultimately we will be judged on them, as well as our products and our delivery of our proposition,” he said.
“We received our first application on the 23rd December, and despite the Christmas holidays, offered on the 12th January – just 10 working days.”
As Fleet moves into sectors such as commercial and into intermediary distribution, Bob says it is an exciting time for everyone at the firm.
“It has certainly been a whirlwind ‘Journey’ to this point but I hope you will join us on the next stages, because we have only just begun.”
New buy-to-let specialist lender, Fleet Mortgages, is planning to launch into the commercial sector.
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