The deal with Commercial First, finalised this week, will see RAMP members target status, semi-status and non-conforming businesses with a range of commercial mortgages offering advances from £50k to £2m, with a maximum 80% LTV. (100% finance is available with additional security).
Commercial First is the first commercial mortgage provider to work with the association and becomes the 16th lender to join RAMP’s lender panel, following the launch of the alliance at the beginning of the year.
John Rice, Managing Director of RAMP, said: “Commercial First gives RAMP members the opportunity to increase their presence in the commercial sector. They will now be able to provide a simple and straightforward mortgage on commercial and semi-commercial properties. There is a big opportunity, as many of the owner managed business market find accessing a term mortgage on a commercial property difficult or time consuming. Commercial First offer flexibility for those clients in a market that is increasingly disenfranchised”.
Stephen Johnson, Sales and Marketing Director at Commercial First, said: “We have a simple and straightforward mortgage product secured on semi-commercial and commercial properties. We believe mortgage brokers have a great opportunity to distribute commercial mortgages, and can add considerable value for a borrower. Self employed and smaller business operations have found securing a commercial mortgage harder and harder as many high street lenders have targeted larger loans. Many introducers work closely with this type of customer, and through RAMP can now offer a new product to their clients – a product that satisfies a real need in the market and one that adds considerable revenue to their own business.”
RAMP members account for £3.8bn of the non-conforming market per year, more than one in three of all sub-prime mortgages. Founder board members include County Group, Solent Mortgage Services, MD Nationwide, Enterprise Homeloans, The Finance Centre, Vesta Money, EM-Financial, Pavillion Securities and IMB.
