The Intermediary – July 2026 - Flipbook - Page 47
BRIDGING
Opinion
The best solutions
start with the
borrower’s objective ROZ CAWOOD
is managing director of property
finance at StreamBank
A
s a business, we talk
a lot about thinking
differently. Now, that
might sound like one
of those phrases that
gets thrown around
quite easily in financial services,
but for me it means something
really simple. It means resisting the
temptation to jump straight to the
obvious answer, and instead taking the
time to understand what the borrower
is actually trying to achieve.
There’s a tendency in our market
to assume everything comes down
to price. However you look at it,
rates are important. Brokers are
absolutely right to look closely at
pricing, particularly when borrowers
are scrutinising every cost involved
in a transaction. The trouble is that
some of the best deals I see aren’t won
because somebody was the cheapest.
In fact, quite oen it’s the opposite.
Some of the cases that end up
landing on our desks are the ones
where somebody has already
explored the most obvious options
and discovered that the case doesn’t
quite add up. That’s where things get
interesting.
People naturally place lenders into
categories. They think, “That’s a
regulated bridging lender” or “That’s a
commercial lender,” and then tend to
view every transaction through that
particular lens.
We see that ourselves. Many people
still think of StreamBank primarily
as a regulated bridging lender. While
that’s an important part of what we
do, it only tells part of the story. Some
of the most interesting transactions
we support involve commercial
assets, semi-commercial properties or
capital-raising requirements.
These are the sorts of transactions
that simply don’t suit a vanilla lending
approach. Now, that’s certainly not
a criticism of lenders focused on
straightforward cases. Every lender
has its own appetite and its own place
in the market. The reality, though,
is that borrowers don’t organise their
lives around lending pillars.
They’re not siing there thinking,
“I’ve got a buy-to-let requirement”
or “I’ve got a semi-commercial
requirement.” They’re thinking, “I
want to buy this property,” “I want
to release some capital,” “I want to
grow my portfolio” or “I need to move
quickly on an opportunity.”
The funding is simply the tool
that helps them get there. Once
you understand the objective,
the conversation oen changes
completely.
The full picture
A recent transaction of ours is a really
good example of that. Initially, the
enquiry looked fairly straightforward,
with the borrower looking to purchase
two buy-to-let (BTL) properties. But,
as is oen the case, that wasn’t really
the whole story.
Alongside the purchases, the
borrower was also looking to raise
capital against an existing semicommercial property.
Now, you can look at that and see
three separate requirements. Or
you can step back, look at the wider
picture and ask what the borrower is
actually trying to achieve overall.
For me, that’s usually the more
useful question. Because once we
understood the wider objective,
it became clear there was an
opportunity to structure a whole
solution rather than focusing on each
element in isolation.
Ultimately, we provided a £642,000
unregulated bridging facility secured
across three properties. The borrower
was able to complete the purchase
of both buy-to-let assets, raise
capital from the semi-commercial
property and secure 100% funding,
all with a clear exit strategy in place
from day one.
What stands out on this particular
deal isn’t necessarily the size of the
facility, it’s that the solution only
became possible because somebody
was prepared to look beyond
the obvious.
If we’d focused solely on the initial
request, we’d probably have had a very
different conversation. Instead, by
understanding the wider borrowing
scenario, we were able to structure a
solution around what the borrower
was actually trying to achieve.
In my experience, the best brokers
already understand this. They’re
naturally curious and ask questions
that go beyond the initial funding
request. They take the time to
understand what success looks like for
the client and then work backwards
from there.
So, when we talk about thinking
differently, that’s really what we
mean. Not doing something unusual
for the sake of it or trying to force
complexity into a transaction.
Simply taking the time to
understand the borrower’s objective
before deciding what the solution
should be. ●
July 2026 | The Intermediary
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