Wey Bridging Finance targets £20m loan book as it joins Bridging Loan Directory

You know the drill as a student. Lectures, tutorials, exams, sport, slumping in a common room afterwards and the odd fruit juice in the evening.

With Jordan Hallows you can add developing a property portfolio to that list. One that ultimately led to the creation of Wey Bridging Finance in 2015 and its entry this week onto the Bridging Loan Directory.

It was back in the early 2000s when Hallows, founder and chief executive of Surrey-based Wey Bridging Finance, bought his first property in his final year as a student at the University of Portsmouth.

“I saved up three student loans to put a deposit down on a tenanted property in Greenwich,” said Hallows. “I got a 95% mortgage back in the good old days! The house went up in value; I remortgaged and soon at quite a young age had a built a portfolio of rental properties.”

But it wasn’t just property which gave the young Hallows a taste of business. In 2003, he bought his first bar, the Circle Bar in Clapham.

This led to Hallows setting up two other hospitality ventures, the Rooms Bar Group, serving late night cocktails and Rarebreed Dining steakhouses.

During this period, he had been liquidating his property portfolio but a chat with a friend in 2015 re-fired his passion for bricks and mortar.

“I decided to carry out a bridging loan to help my friend. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t put an arrangement fee on or a minimum term or exit fee. The loan only lasted for 6 weeks but it was a hell of a buzz,” he said.

That was the start of Wey Bridging Finance with Jordan and his wife Philippa slowly building the loan book up.

“My full-time job remained hospitality. When we were full tilt, we had 150 staff and were entertaining 2,000 guests a week,” he said. “Wey Bridging Finance was a side business really. It made money, and I enjoyed doing deals. It was all very reactive. I would get an inquiry and then deal with it, rather than actively look for new work.”

But the last few years have been a difficult time for hospitality with Brexit, Covid, and rising inflation.

“The business wasn’t growing and I like growth. So, last December I agreed terms to exit Rarebreed confident in the knowledge that there was a strong group of young directors there. It’s doing really well and as a local restaurant I still go there once a week,” Hallows said.

The success of the bridging business was another factor in Hallows decision.

“Bridging was really starting to push on, and the loans were becoming more profitable,” he said. “Over the last few months, we’ve worked hard to further develop systems and infrastructure. Also, we needed get our name out there a bit more and let people see what we offer.”

The business funds primarily residential Buy-to-let (BTL) acquisitions and refinances nationwide, light to heavy refurbishments and extensions, land with planning consent, mixed-use commercial and residential properties.

Its loan size is between £250,000 and £2 million with interest rates from 1% per month. Its average ticket size is around £1 million. Its maximum LTV is up to 75%, with terms between 3 and 18 months and a 1% arrangement and exit fee. It does first but not second charges.

“Our lending is vanilla,” he explained. “That’s partly because a lot of our money is from private investors including my Mum and Dad, as well as other friends and family. We have around 32 private investors and funders in total.”

Although not the “cheapest”, Wey wins business on “communications, speed and the personal touch”. Its motto is Smart, Swift and Personal.

“We have a full-time underwriter and financial controller, but Philippa and I are the credit committee. We push the button to send the money,” he said. “Whenever I do that, I know that part of that is my parents’ money. So, I need to ensure it is going to the right place.”

Hallows says the group has 24/7 communications with its borrowers and brokers. “We are always available. We want to work with developers and property professionals and go on a journey with them,” he said.

The current team of 6 – all female, but “not by design”- helps foster that ethos. “We are small, nimble and caring. We nurture the relationship with the borrowers. In fact, we have some who have been with us for 7 to 8 years and who keep bringing us more deals.”

Technology also plays a key role with an advanced AI and automation system, partly developed by the Wey Bridging team, helping to swiftly onboard new lenders and investors.

It’s all helped the company’s loan book to grow to £12 million, doubling every year for the past three years.

The company also points to its work with Peer2Peer lending platform Loanpad as being “instrumental” in its growth.

In addition, in July, it secured a credit line from Renaissance Asset Finance, the asset finance subsidiary of Arbuthnot Latham.  This facility aims to enable Wey Bridging to support a greater number of clients, offer larger and more flexible loans, while driving even more growth in its loan book.

Hallows called the deal a ‘game-changer’.

“Our target is to get to £20 million by next Summer,” Hallows said. “We have all the foundations in place with operations, infrastructure and funding. I don’t believe we have to increase our headcount in order to reach our target. We want to maintain our lovely team spirit and culture.”

Marketing will also be key, which is why Wey Bridging is now joining the Bridging Loan Directory.

“In the last three months we have upgraded our website and our social media profile,” he said. “Brokers in the industry also encouraged us to get into industry directories and the Bridging Loan Directory was top of the list.”

Buy to let will continue to be the key driver, he explained. “There is hesitancy in the general market ahead of the Budget this month, but there are still people who want to sell and sharp operators looking to buy. I am a big believer in our property market.”

Going forward post-Renaissance, Wey will split their loans into two pots. “One will be the Renaissance pot where deals will be quite vanilla and mostly residential. The friends, family and Loanpad funds will have larger ticket sizes and a wider range of asset classes,” he said.

Hallows does have limits on the growth ambitions. It has ‘no vision’ of being a £200 million or £300 million strong lender. “We don’t want to do loans just to deploy capital. Keeping that personal connection is our sweet spot,” he explains.

Other lenders, he says, feel the same.

“I make it my business to network and share war stories with lenders of a similar size to us. A number don’t want to chase huge loan books either,” he says. “We’ve mooted that when we get to that £20 million level, we could potentially merge. We could then look to sell to a larger business and make a partial or full exit. But for now, we’re growing Wey Bridging Finance and looking after our borrowers and investors. For some of them it is their retirement fund. We appreciate the trust they put in us.”

And pride no doubt when Hallows visits his parents. “They are very supportive. They have also run businesses so are always keen to know what is going on,” he says. “They know the fundamentals of building and maintaining a successful firm and culture.”

Part of the latter comes from those early learnings in the hospitality industry.

“Getting in the right talent, investing in people and maintaining relationships is important,” he says. “You get found out quick in hospitality because you are only as good as your last service. It is the same in bridging. A can-do attitude is crucial.”

Read the original article on: https://bridgingloandirectory.co.uk/bld-introduces/wey-bridging-finance-targets-20m-loan-book-as-it-joins-bridging-loan-directory/