Legal delays, downvaluations and cautious credit committees dominate FP Show discussions

With more than 1,700 industry professionals descending on the FP Show 2026 on Friday, B&C took the opportunity to get straight to the heart of the specialist finance market, speaking to experts about the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the sector.

Across the floor, interest rates and economic uncertainty were weighing on the property market, but there were hopes that technology, particularly AI, could fight back against the friction.

State of the market

Andres Salas, relationship director at Somo, acknowledged that high interest rates and economic uncertainty had left the market in a challenging position.

Rising rates and the increased legislative pressure was changing investment decisions, noted Josh Knight, managing director of sales and marketing at Glenhawk, who highlighted that the lender was tweaking its products to become even more competitive.

At the same time, borrowers are becoming more professional as higher taxes and admin mean BTL and property development is no longer for amateurs.

Nick Allen, head of marketing, product and proposition at GB Bank, added that the lender was seeing greater demand from professional landlords using limited company structures, investing in HMOs and multi-unit properties, and building increasingly sophisticated portfolios.

He said: “At the same time, higher financing costs, regulatory change, and continued pressure on housing supply mean borrowers need lenders that can take a more considered, flexible approach.”

Identifying opportunity

Given the current market conditions, James Brocklebank, head of operations at Bluecroft Finance, stated there was a “huge gap” in the market for lenders that could underwrite without using a tick list and could listen to the story and understand the deal in front of them.

Attendees at the FP Show 2026 also agreed that innovation had become more important.

Somo’s Andres said: “Lenders are going to come out with a lot more specialist products to cater for this new market that's essentially emerging.”

For example, Somo has launched a new breathing space product for landlords.

Similarly, Masthaven now allows clients to add legals to their loans to remove “the heat” of upfront costs.

Despite climbing BTL taxes, Ginny Warby, senior business development manager at Masthaven, said there was still a lot of interest in BTLs or people refurbishing them back to residential properties.

Ginny commented: “The opportunities for brokers are going to be grabbing refurbs . . . people are saying that with interest rates going up, people won’t want to move,” adding that there were also opportunities in self-build and development.

Sally Precious Ward, key account manager at Together, suggested there was a “huge opportunity” to reassess properties deemed ‘unmortgageable’ and to question whether they genuinely warranted that classification.

She explained that brokers could help borrowers explore other options outside the mainstream high street.

Funding friction

While there may be opportunities, challenges remain in the property finance sector.

One big issue is valuations.

The market has been so up and down, said Ginny, that “Mr Smith will always think his house is worth a lot more than ultimately it is”.

She added: “There’s always a shock when they might get a downvalue, and unfortunately there’s not a lot we can do about that.”

Ginny noted that brokers will need to help clients by realistically looking at what a seller thinks a property is worth and what has been sold locally.

Adam Robson, head of key accounts at Mint Property Finance, agreed there was a lot of downvaluing in the market. “One thing we've done to try and mitigate that risk is we've brought in an in-house valuer,” he said.

“They will do an assessment before a borrower spends more money.”

Another main cause of tension identified at the expo was legal processes.

Recognise Bank’s senior lending manager Rachael Johnson, described the legal process as one of the biggest causes of delay across the market.

She said: “Transactions often stall due to lengthy legal enquiries, delays between representatives, and late-stage information requests.

“Earlier engagement between all parties would improve certainty and completion times. That includes lenders being decisive and clear about their requirements from the outset, helping brokers and borrowers understand what is needed to progress.”

Jack Coombs, managing director and group COO at Aspen Bridging, said: “We were finding earlier in the year the legal process was the most arduous element of getting deals done.

“What we’ve done to try and alleviate that is streamline our requisitions. We’ve made it a lot easier and we’re relying exclusively on title policies and we intervene on a regular basis to work with our lawyers to take sensible perspectives.”

Many lenders were doing a great job in getting deals through the due diligence process and reporting and valuation stages, commented Dean Brown, managing director and founder of Aureum Finance, but there sometimes was friction at credit committee stage.

He said: “The friction sometimes comes through the credit committees being a little bit too conservative on the build costs.

“And then when it gets into the legal process, questions come up on the title or other issues that maybe some lenders aren't as experienced as dealing with those.

“Therefore, you end up getting a very credit-based decision, sometimes moving the goalpost massively, or even pulling out of deals.”

One solution to this is better communication.

Matt Taylor, sales director at LendInvest, backed a more collaborative approach.

He said: “Lenders will have a risk appetite, possibly even a funding line or the criteria they need to adhere to.

“Valuers will need to have an eye on current market comparable evidence they can gather, which may not be available, and standards they'll need to meet.

“Solicitors will need to do the same. So, in terms of friction, it's probably just a case of processes being quite siloed at the minute.”

Layla Hamidian, head of Nomo Property Finance, stated that the biggest difference would come from greater integration and information sharing across the transaction journey. “If customers, brokers, lenders, and conveyancers had better visibility of case progress, many delays and frustrations could be reduced.”

Clients also have a role to play.

Jamie Russell, commercial director at Ortus Secured Finance, explained: “In my experience, it's usually how motivated the client is which moves the needle the most. Early engagement with key stakeholders ensures that there is transaction buy-in and, if that happens, things can move at pace.”

AI boost

Unsurprisingly, the buzzword around the conference was artificial intelligence technology, which could help with many friction issues.

Stephen Spinks, head of sales at Allica Bank, predicted that technology was going to play a major part in 2027.

He said: “AI is already massively impacting what we do.

“It's already helping us to do things like review valuations a lot quicker and look at complex financials and get a better understanding of an overall business's availability to service funding.”

The AI opportunity isn't to automate specialist lending to the point where every borrower has to fit an algorithm, added Streambank’s national account director Lorenzo Satchell, but to “automate the friction”.

Lorenzo commented: “Credit searches, identity checks, valuations, document collection, case updates, calculations, and straightforward policy rules can increasingly be handled digitally.

“That gives experienced people more time to concentrate on the parts where judgement genuinely adds value, such as understanding a complex transaction, assessing the credibility of an exit, or structuring a solution.”

Beyond better communication and technology, whether the property market rallies in 2027 will also be driven by what happens in the broader economy and geopolitical picture.

As Glenhawk’s Josh said: “The Iran conflict needs to conclude, oil prices need to come down, and inflation needs to come under control.

“If this domino effect happens, we’ll see a drop in swap rates and lenders will be able to positively re-price – and that will breathe confidence into the market.”