Mint sees enquiries to conversions surge

Featured in Bridging & Commercial

Mint Bridging has reported an upward scale of enquiries to conversions during the first half of 2017 compared with last year.

Bridging & Commercial caught up with Steve Bowes, business development manager at Mint, to find out more about the bridging lender’s start to the year and its plans for the remainder of 2017.

“We’ve experienced an impressive upward scale of enquiries to conversions, higher than last year, and are building on the strength and momentum that we experienced during 2015 and 2016.  

“Mint Bridging has also grown the size of the team, especially across our underwriting and sales business areas to bring in new, fresh ideas and sales strategies.”

Last week, Mint revealed that it had expanded its team across all divisions by 88% over the past year.

“We have expanded our office locations with the opening of a new standalone sales function, increased our team and focused on making sure every loan is a success story,” Steve added.

“We know that referrals are important and contribute to continually growing the business.

“They are an integral part of our marketing strategy for 2017 onwards.”

According to Steve, Mint has exceeded month-on-month, quarterly and annual targets continually for three years in a row and he believed that bridging was now being seen more than ever as a quick, short-term solution.

“At Mint, we are so flexible it means that our service can really benefit the client as a short-term solution.

“Also, less experienced financiers supplying bridging loans don’t have the ability to provide the levels of personalisation Mint offers.

“It’s just not their core business, it’s an add-on feature. 

“Our clients benefit from dealing with specialised experts, exactly what they want and need: they trust us with their investments and that’s something we never take lightly.”

Speaking about how traditional lenders such as Mint can cope with the influx of new bridging lenders, Steve felt that it was important that it was providing the best service possible.

“We make sure that we follow through and deliver all that we say we will complete, and more.

“We provide a wealth of industry experience for our clients, which is important to them, especially those that are new to the property market arena.”

Steve said that it saw many new competitor lenders focusing heavily on rates or turnaround.

“This has no impact on Mint since our brand is renowned for looking at the bigger picture, ensuring we are available for the client throughout the full term and being a true ally, rather than price determining a loan and then leaving the client to their own devices.
 
“We’re proud to say that we’ve never had an existing client require a re-bridge, due to providing successful initial bridging loans.”

Steve felt that there would be a drop-off by those bridging lenders who could not sustain operating at lower margins.

“Mint is established and experienced, we have decades of combined industry expertise and focus predominantly on handcrafting client’s loans over the full term.
 
“It’s put us in good stead and continuously separates us from other lenders that operate a ‘whatever the competition does, we will do it better’ strategy.

“We do keep an eye on what our competitors are doing, but it absolutely doesn’t define us.”