The Intermediary – December 2025 - Flipbook - Page 15
I N P RO F I L E
Market trends and headwinds
No part of the housing and finance market has
been entirely insulated from the pressures of the
past year. The result has been a property landscape
characterised by hesitation.
“Externally, we’ve seen an affordability squeeze,
inflationary problems and financial problems,”
Saujani says. “And in the run-up to the Budget,
people were facing the unknown. It caused a lot of
uncertainty.”
These conditions have affected everything from
conveyancing to borrower timelines. Even where
appetite has remained strong, the rhythm of the
market is slower and more fragmented.
Saujani says: “We’ve also seen a lot of legal
friction – the biggest drag we’ve seen is that
people are still finding things difficult, and the time
to process deals is taking longer.”
Rather than stepping back from the market,
customers have become more cautious and more
dependent on extended timelines, particularly
when planning refinances.
Saujani says: “For example, people come in and
they take out a bridging loan for a year with the
view to refinance within eight or nine months,
and they’re now taking that full amount of time
because things are just happening slower; that’s
due to uncertainty in the marketplace.”
Another significant challenge is the inefficient
approach to property data, which “causes the
same bottlenecks across the whole industry.”
Saujani is clear that structural intervention is
needed, which might be in the form of a private
partnership or national reform, adding: “I’m not
saying that it’s the technology that needs to
improve, it’s the ability to access that data.”
With refinancing challenges emerging across the
wider market and transaction speeds slowing in
certain regions, TAB has been refining its approach
to underwriting. The goal is to remain aligned with
how different pockets of the market are behaving.
“We’re becoming more data-led,” Saujani
explains. “I’m not saying that we are robotic –
we’re not relying just purely on data – but we’re
reviewing our loan book to identify the things that
aren’t working well or are, all within the loans
that we’ve already originated. That way, we can
understand how we can better position ourselves
and help in the future.”
One of the clearest trends TAB has identified
this year is in the prime Central London market,
where activity has softened and values have
adjusted more noticeably than elsewhere. Rather
than shrinking its ambition, TAB is using its
insight to sharpen the way it structures loans and
supports borrowers. Saujani says: “When we’re
at the underwriting phase, we’re looking more at
expenditure of businesses and we’re doing a lot
more due diligence around where there might be
payment shocks in the future and asking borrowrs
to set up direct debits for mortgages.”
This helps frame loans in a way that supports
borrowers through slower-moving markets,
ensuring that deals remain resilient.
Responsible growth
TAB’s strategy remains firmly growth oriented.
Saujani is clear that any calibration of approach is
about scaling intelligently and staying aligned with
the realities of the market.
“We’re not supercharging our growth just for
the sake of it,” he says. “Simply put, we’re trying
to grow and build things up at a rate which works.
We’re not trying to take greater risks. It’s about
quality-led decisions and aligning those to our risk
metrics to ensure that we’re taking deal-by-deal,
making the right decisions, and giving us a better
opportunity to grow supported by our lending.”
The specialist sector is attracting a level of
institutional attention that would have been
unthinkable a decade ago. “Generally, we’re seeing
more appetite and more liquidity,” Saujani notes.
This has opened new opportunities for lenders
like TAB, not just in terms of funding, but in the
quality of partnerships available. With more
liquidity in the system, the sector is increasingly
competitive, and lenders must compete to
differentiate themselves. Nevertheless, Saujani
is clear that while institutional backing provides
room to accelerate, growth must be purposeful.
He adds: “We’re not going to just open the tap
and start lending loads as quickly as possible,
we’re still taking into account the right quality
of those deals. Across the marketplace, pricing
is becoming more competitive and actually now
what’s becoming more important is the way in
which, as a business, we can make ourselves stand
out against the crowd.”
For TAB, this means strengthening the
cornerstones of its lending, while expanding
in areas that deliver meaningful value. As the
business looks ahead to 2026, the strategy is
focused and ambitious, Saujani explains: “Part of
my role as a CCO is to ensure that the strategy of
what we’re doing is clear. We’re ambitious about
what we’re trying to do. It’s about becoming a
genuine market leader, providing the longer-term
lending, and we really want to continue to grow.
“We want to provide customers with the best
quality and the best support that we can.”
Saujani believes the coming year presents an
opportunity for lenders to re-engage.
He concludes: “Uncertainty has definitely now
calmed down.
“I think it’s time for everyone to step up and to
support the marketplace where they can.” ●
December 2025 | The Intermediary
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