Lenders lose confidence in bridging market growth

The results from the latest ASTL sentiment survey found that just 38% of bridging lenders felt more positive about the long-term prospects of the UK economy following last month’s budget.

Following the general election, 92% of lenders felt the bridging market would grow over the next 12 months, however as much as 47% have revealed the uncertainty over the EU referendum would impact the bridging market.

Benson Hersch, CEO of the ASTL stated: “No doubt the prospect of Britain leaving the EU is causing much of this uncertainty.  

“There are unchartered waters ahead and, whether it is better or worse for the UK to leave the EU, no-one can really say with any degree of certainty.”

90% felt confident of their own prospects at their respective firms, however, now only two-thirds of lenders are confident of the UK’s economic prospects in the next six months, a significant decrease from the 100% who felt confident at the start of the year.

“While our latest sentiment survey is still overwhelmingly positive, there has been a real shift in how positively our bridging lenders view the outlook for the economy – people are noticeably more uncertain about it than they were at this time last year following the general election,” Benson added.

“Even following the summer budget, 84% of our members then said that they felt positive about the long term future of the UK economy, this has dropped to 38% with 19% feeling negative.”

The ASTL sentiment survey consists of the Association’s 34 bridging lender members and 24 associate members.