Category: Company News

At UK Property Finance, nothing makes us prouder than knowing the services we provide are appreciated by our customers. That is why we are delighted to announce that UK Property Finance has been long-listed for the 2021 Specialist Finance Introducer Awards, one of the year’s highest-profile events for the sector.

UK Property Finance Ltd have been nominated for five separate awards in the following categories:

• Best Broker: Bridging
• Best Broker: Commercial
• Best Broker: Development Finance
• Best Broker: Secured Loans
• Specialist Finance Broker of the Year

The Specialist Finance Introducer Awards are arranged each year by Mortgage Introducer with its sister publication Specialist Finance Introducer. The awards are held to reward “excellence and thought leadership” in the field of specialist finance, recognising the market’s most innovative service providers who go the extra mile for their clients.

Voting is now open at the URL below, ahead of the announcement of the final shortlist of candidates on May 14.

https://sfiawards.co.uk/voting/

Only four companies from each category will make it through to the final round of voting, so we welcome the support of anyone UK Property Finance has worked with over the years.

Vote now and help us reach the next stage of the SFI Awards!

Specialist Finance Introducer Awards 2021 Timeline

“Following on from our previous stellar events, the Specialist Finance Introducer Awards are returning for a sixth successive year. Brought to you by the team behind Mortgage Introducer, the awards celebrate all that is great in the specialist sector.”

“The Awards recognise, reward and celebrate the best and brightest of the UK Specialist Finance sector; individuals and businesses who are pushing boundaries, breaking down barriers and resetting the dial with innovation and professionalism.” – SFI Awards 2021

Longlist nominations closed on April 1 and the deadline for votes on the final shortlist is May 14. The winners from each of the categories will subsequently be announced at the awards ceremony on 24 June, which will take place online for health and safety reasons.

Once again, we are delighted to be in the running for five awards at SFI 2021 and welcome the support of anyone who would like to see UK Property Finance reach the next round of voting.

A big thank you to all of our clients and customers for supporting UKPF over the years!

UK Property Finance offer our best Black Friday deal ever!

At UK Property Finance we are offering our customers £500 cashback for all new applications submitted between 29^th November and 6^th December.

Please quote “Black Friday” to our advisors when discussing any new enquiries.

Enquire now to ensure you don’t miss out on earning £500 cashback.

At UK Property Finance, we’re always proud to share our success stories with the world. Having recently assisted two more clients with what seemed difficult tasks, we’ve once again demonstrated our capacity to perform when put to the test.

Along with a cost-effective remortgage in just 9 days for one client, we successfully organised two main-stream mortgages for an experienced investor with complicated requirements.

Here’s how the team at UK Property Finance handled these challenging cases:

Case 1: Scott – 9-Day Remortgage

Our Northern Irish clients were looking to urgently raise funds by way of a first charge mortgage on their unencumbered main residence to consolidate historic gambling debts, repay expensive payday loans and carry out some major upgrading works inside the home.

Both clients were self-employed and had an adverse credit history. UK Property Finance were able to clearly relay the clients circumstances and source the most competitive fixed-rate deal in the market that met their needs and preferences with no upfront fees payable. They were also able to use the lender’s solicitors at no cost to them.

Our UK wide document collection company met with our clients on the same day as initial contact and all required information was immediately gathered from the client at the start of the application process. This meant that once the application was submitted, UK Property Finance were able to process the application immediately to offer and completion took place 9 days after initial contact with minimal further involvement from our clients.

Case 2: Levy – Two Mortgages to Purchase a New Investment Property

Our client was looking to purchase a Buy to Let (BTL) property, which they intended to convert to a House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) to increase the value and potential rental yield. They had a small amount in savings and wanted a mortgage for the remainder of the purchase price. However, due to the condition of the property, they were not able to raise all they needed to borrow by way of a first charge mortgage on the property to be purchased.

Luckily for our clients, they had an unencumbered residential property they were willing to use to raise the extra funds. UKPF were able to remortgage their residential property to raise capital towards the purchase, with the remainder coming from a mortgage on the purchase property.

We were able to obtain a mainstream deal for our client, by utilising our excellent lender relationships and by clearly explaining to the lender the nature and timeframe involved in the works needed to finish the HMO conversion.  The lender as such provided our client with a mainstream BTL product.

Due to our streamlined processing route, UK Property Finance were able to process the cases quickly and efficiently and negotiate with the client’s solicitors, in order to ensure that both mortgages completed simultaneous. The client now has a further investment property added to his portfolio.

Ask the Experts…

At UK Property Finance, challenging cases and urgent financial requirements are our forte. Whatever your requirements and however many times you’ve been turned down elsewhere, we’ll help you access to finance you need at a price you can afford. Contact a member of the team at UK Property Finance anytime for more information.

UK Property Finance had not previously been on the exhibitors list of a show this size before but certainly made the most of the 4 days exhibiting. The national homebuilding & renovating show is open to the trades and general public to source the latest building materials for their project. The latest innovations in building technology are show cased in front of large crowds. 5 Seminar halls are filled through-out the event with back-to-back lectures.

“The advice Gary and Ewan gave, has made me really motivated to roll my sleeves up on my refurbishment property”

An estimated 36000 visitors piled into the NEC in Birmingham over the course of the event. A team of 4 including UKPF’s managing director, Gary Latham, were on hand to offer advice and quotations relating to their current project.

Gary led the team in providing quality advice and handing out informative literature to passers-by. Enthusiastically UKPF spoke to hundreds of clients each day and found plenty of unique projects needing specialist finance solutions. Mr Singh from Edgbaston, Birmingham commented “It’s unusual not to see more finance advisors here. The advice Gary and Ewan gave, has made me really motivated to roll my sleeves up on my refurbishment property”

Every morning, a tannoy announcement was made and large crowds could be seen running into the exhibition halls with the mayhem of black Friday. The halls filled up within minutes and a queue formed around stand H139.

Mrs Betteridge from Diss, Suffolk approached one of the team as soon as the exhibition opened and said ‘Oh fantastic! I’ve found you! I need your advice on property finance’.  This continued through-out the day. By 11:30 am, an orderly queue had formed down the main aisle of potential clients looking to see Gary and the team. 25 requested quotations where emailed to UKPF HQ within first morning of the exhibition.

‘How to finance your development project – An expert guide to different funding sources’

The event came to a pinnacle during the weekend when Ewan Duncan, Senior Consultant took to the stage to host a seminar in front of a large audience. The master class theatre was in the heart of the exhibition and drew large crowds with lectures on everything from underfloor heating to timber frame builds. Ewan presented a 20-minute seminar on ‘how to finance your development project – An expert guide to different funding sources’. The presentation described in detail the versatility and flexibility of bridging loans. Ewan was able to address the audience’s common misconceptions when it comes to development finance and provide a detailed approach to choosing finance for your project.

One of the UK’s leading providers of intelligently sourced, independent property finance solutions has voiced an opinion of concern against rival firms seeking to actively shun the introduction and development of new, automated services that have been designed and implemented to provide a much improved and significantly more streamlined customer service experience.  Unlike many of their competitors, the team at UK Property Finance believes that the automation of various services should be embraced and not avoided entirely in order to maintain a supposedly more human and direct relationship with their customers.

On the contrary, rather than seeing automation as something that dehumanizes the relationship between service provider and client, the team at UK Property Finance instead recognizes the immense and numerous benefits that technology can provide in terms of speeding things up and simplifying many procedures for customers, and this has led to an increased investment into automated and semi-automated solutions that are aimed at improving services and overall satisfaction across the board.

Much Needed Progress

“Rather than viewing developments like robo-advice as a threat, advisers should look at how new technology can help them to stay one step ahead of the competition. Above all else, brokers must ensure that they are using every tool available to provide a modern, holistic service that meets the requirements of their customers throughout all aspects of the market, whether that be for mortgages, re-mortgages, second charge or buy-to-let products.” – L&G Mortgage Club director Jeremy Duncombe

With these precise sentiments in mind, UK Property Finance has invested a significant amount of time and money into a growing number of technological resources which enable customers to find and retrieve as much information as possible, quickly and efficiently, without ever having to speak to an advisor directly.  Of course, the service is not completely automated and help is always available whenever one-to-one advice is required, with the main emphasis based on providing quick and easy tools that are designed to augment the quality of customer service and not dispose of it entirely – as some rival brokers would have on believe.

A basic example of the use of technology to speed things up for customers would be the introduction of the online Bridging Loan Calculator.  One of the first tools of its kind, the UK Property Finance bridging loan calculator was designed from the ground up to provide quick and easy access to the basic cost of borrowing and the associated fees and rates when this is the only information a client is interested in.  Instead of spending a considerable amount of time on the telephone chatting to an advisor, or organizing a face-to-face meeting, a customer can obtain all the data they need using a simple on-screen app that tells them everything they need to know in order to make a genuinely informed decision.

Full Commitment to Customer Service

“At UK Property Finance, we place the needs of our clients much higher than those of our own.  In an industry where many of our competitors view computerization and technological breakthroughs as more of a hindrance than a stepping-stone, we take the opposite view.  Although it is true to say that some technologies do seem to be aimed at removing the need for human interaction altogether, there are many advantages to be gained when these new advancements are used in the correct context.  In short, if it benefits the client then we feel that this is something that should be embraced and not feared.”

The team at UK Property Finance provide a unique service package that remains completely focused on the needs of the client, at all times.  Instead of concentrating on increased sales and marketing, a much greater level of emphasis is placed on delivering the most appropriate financing product with the lowest available rates.  From start to finish, the entire process of applying for a bridging loan or similar property finance solution is kept as simple, stress-free and convenient as possible.

This year the UK Property Finance team have nearly doubled in size. It was great for the whole team to get together to enjoy some festive spirit and laughter at this year’s Christmas party. Everyone from the team joined us from our BDMS, processing team, internal sales and our marketing gurus. Thankfully we know more about Property Finance than we do in music quizzes, as we failed miserably. Luckily we are all still a very close team and look forward to another year in the finance sector, where we will no doubt expand further.

UK Property Finance would like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to building new business relationships in the new year and also expanding our existing business relationships with lenders.

Mr and Mrs D came to UK Property Finance as they really needed funds to respond to a recent life changing event. These events required them to make substantial alterations to a residential property that they had recently purchased.

Being in the prime of their life they looked to release equity against the property, but as it was not habitable at the time and they were currently living in rented accommodation, due to the works, they did not fit the lenders stringent requirements.

Mr and Mrs D were also enjoying the delights of retirement. This situation, however, rendered them without a recognised income and above the acceptable age limit of many residential mortgages.

With so many traditional funding avenues closed to them Mr and Mrs D were starting to get very concerned about their fragile situation.

UK Property Finance listened to our customers concerns and as we are directly FCA authorised and regulated we could investigate a number of solutions for their problem.

We quickly agreed that a bridging loan would solve their urgent need of funding. A formal agreement in principle and paperwork was despatched to our one of our trusted professional representatives who met with the customer on the same night and returned all the necessary paperwork.

We are happy to report Mr and Mrs D received the funding within a week! They will be moving into their new and improved home within a few weeks.