The Intermediary –- May 2026 - Flipbook - Page 76
Q&A
MT Finance
Jessica O’Connor speaks to MT Finance’s national account
managers James Briggs and Nigel Robbins, and business
development managers Alex Taylor and Adam Healy, about
the lender’s recent sales team expansion and its presence
across the commercial and buy-to-let markets
How has MT Finance strengthened
its BDM team recently?
Briggs: We’ve very recently added two new
members to the team. Charlie Gregory in London
and Adam Healy in the north, further boosting the
diversity of experience within the team.
That difference of both industry and life
experience adds to the diversity of the team and
how we approach everything we do – whether it’s
feedback on products, how to get the most out
of our broker relationships and how best to use
technology to work with our partners.
We’re all very open with each other when it
comes to feedback – all with the aim of giving
brokers and their clients positive outcomes.
How does the expansion into
commercial and BTL complement
the core bridging offering?
Robbins: Bridging is core to our business, and it
is often used as a financial tool at the start of the
process. Most people will look to do an acquisition
these days by using a bridge, especially if any form
of work needs to be done to the property.
So if we look at buy-to-let (BTL) in isolation,
our target market very much being multi-unit
freehold blocks (MUFB) and houses in multiple
occupation (HMO), we were able to look at exits
from those bridges, which historically would have
gone to other lenders, and complemented that
with our new offering. For instance, we have made
recent changes on HMOs, lending up to 80% on
large HMOs and requiring no minimum income for
experienced landlords.
It’s very similar on the commercial side of
the business, too. We were already doing the
commercial cases, and therefore, our experience
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The Intermediary | May 2026
has allowed us to reshape what we’re able to offer
in terms of commercial as well. We’ve also recently
introduced a specialist offering in the semicommercial space, which allows us to lend to an
even higher level, up to 80%, which is quite unique
within the commercial market.
What trends are you seeing in the
commercial space at the moment?
Briggs: There’s a mix of experience when it
comes to brokers. You have the brokers that are
well-established in the commercial market, and
then you’ve got brokers who have more recently
diversified into commercial, which is great. The
days of a broker offering a single product or just
being a residential specialist are no longer.
If you look at what’s particularly popular with
us from a product perspective, you’ve got those
historic residential property investors who are
moving into more diverse asset classes. They’re
looking at investing in commercial, semicommercial mixed-use properties, with semicommercial being one of our particularly popular
products at MT Finance over the last six months.
I think that’s a result of the changing appetite of
landlords, but this demand could also be driven by
increased regulation on property investors, such
as the Renters’ Right Act and the historic impact
of the taxation changes. The modern property
investor is smarter, and the modern mortgage
broker has adapted to meet their needs.
Have you seen a change in landlord
behaviour in recent months?
Robbins: Definitely. It’s not a surprise as this has
been coming down the line. Experienced landlords
have been doing work behind the scenes and
diversifying their portfolios.
