Where are specialist finance experts really sourcing deals?

There's a moment in every market cycle when the obvious deals dry up and the interesting ones start. We're in it now. Speak to enough lenders, brokers and surveyors, and a picture starts to emerge of an industry that has quietly stopped waiting for the BTL purchase or the refurb—and gone looking instead for the deal nobody else wants to touch.

"The biggest change for me has been the move away from cookie-cutter lending," says Adam Butler, sales and marketing director at Avamore Capital. This refers to a standardised loan approval process that relies on automated criteria, instead of individual borrower evaluation.  "Borrowers today are looking at more complex opportunities; that's where the value is," he adds.

It seems it isn't just Avamore. Across the market, this observation is repeated: equity is scarce, ground-up development has become harder to sell, and sales cycles have stretched out just enough to push both borrowers and lenders towards assets they would have politely declined some years ago. 

Jonathan Samuels, CEO and founder of Octane Capital, frames it as a complete break from an old assumption. "The days of buying an asset and holding it for capital appreciation are pretty much over—the economics for that don't work any more," he says. "Property professionals need to add value. That's the first thing." 

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