Brokers prefer consistency over rates

Earlier this month, Nationwide Building Society announced that it would abort its commercial property lending ahead of a withdrawal from the commercial real estate market.

This decision came as part of plans to focus on its core business.

Now, Alternative has stressed the importance of certainty of closing in the short-term property loans market.

Brian Rubins, managing director at Alternative, said: “This is the broker community’s message and, of course, it is totally logical as without consistency, it is impossible to create alliances or predict the outcome of any proposal.

“Post-Brexit, we maintained our position as a leading short-term lender when there was an exit from the market by a number of other bridging companies, large and small, and when even more pretended it would be business as usual, albeit tongue in cheek.

“We have one simple message to existing Nationwide borrowers, brokers and property professionals: our group has made short-term property loans for almost 25 years and we see ourselves continuing to do this in 25 years’ time.”

The news follows the launch of Alternative’s ‘Christmas has come early’ campaign, which includes lower interest rates, increased LTV ratios and higher commissions for broker partners.