The mortgage and finance lending market is always changing as lenders adapt their products to meet the needs of borrowers as a result of market trends, as well as the cost and availability of wholesale market money. In the first of a series of articles, I asked Karl Griggs of CPC Finance to give us more insight on the current market trends for SME developers and portfolio landlords.

As many know all to well, the market has been buoyant since last summer when the first lockdown ended, so my first question to Karl was about the impact of the SDLT ‘holiday’ and the implications of the ‘rush to the trough’ by both owner-occupiers and investment-led buyers.

“It’s obviously a scramble at the moment to get stuff over the line,” says Karl. “Lenders are really struggling with the volume of applications and of course many of their staff are not working from their offices. The (SDLT) scheme was amended in the recent Budget but it’s likely we will have a similar situation in June to what we would have had on the 31st of March, although the ‘tapering’ announced into the autumn for transactions below £250,000 will help alleviate the conveyancing pressures. Many solicitors are also working from home, which causes complications for lenders and borrowers alike.

“We were already seeing people looking at bridging facility options with the (previous) March SDLT deadline looming rapidly, and I would expect that also to be the situation in June as more people will look to buy and hope to complete in time. It’s the nature of the beast that too many people wait until the last minute hoping to negotiate a better deal as a deadline approaches.  

“Those who were looking at bridging options prior to the June extension will now have more time and will be able to opt for a longer term lending product if they have bought recently, perhaps at auction.