LISTEN: The UK property finance market welcomed 46 new lenders in 2014, taking the total number of new lenders to 225, according to the latest research from Savills.
The Savills Financing Property Report 2015 said that in the past three years 150 lenders made their market debut, in addition to the 75 existing lenders.
Some of the new entrants for 2014 included Athene, a lending arm of US private equity giant Apollo; Rothschild, Hermes’ senior debt fund; and hedge fund Strategic Value Partners.
The year also saw some former lenders make a return to the market, particularly Morgan Stanley and NAB, whose lending activities had virtually ceased following the 2008 crisis.
The most significant lender to enter the market, according to report author and head of valuations at Savills William Newsom, is the UK government. It has put £3.5bn into the PRS guarantee scheme administered by Venn Partners.
New lenders were found to have only 13.5% market share but this was expected to grow to 30% by 2020. They made inroads into the newly mature mezzanine lending space.
For the first time the Savills report did not define the big-ticket lenders sub-group – the research found that more than 70% of all lenders were now actively seeking to lend in this space.
In contrast, no lender was willing to lend amounts less than £5m.
