Nine out of 10 (88%) brokers who operate in the development finance sector have been approached by developers in the last 12 months after they were rejected by their favourite lender.
Brokers have also had trouble getting funding, as half (50%) said they had their proposals turned down last time they turned to a high street bank looking for development finance.
Noel Meredith, executive director of United Trust Bank, said: “The results of this United Trust Bank survey echo research carried out by the NHBC last year which found that gaining access to suitable funding was a serious concern for smaller developers.
“Whereas many lenders, including the high street banks, have decided that lending to smaller developers no longer fits their credit criteria, others such as United Trust Bank, have stepped in to fill at least some of the void.
“United Trust Bank has increased its development finance lending every year, and has provided hundreds of millions of pounds of new project funding over the last few years, with loan sizes ranging from around half a million to over ten million pounds.”
Less than a third of brokers (28%) felt that high street banks had increased lending to businesses in 2014 while just two in five (40%) expects this to change in 2015.
