Commercial Finance Newsletter

Just to let you all know our latest Commercial Finance Newsletter was published last week. In this edition we offer advice on how to structure your business plan and give you a summary of the current lending available from UK banks.

If you would like to sign up to our monthly newsletter, please contact us by emailing newsletter@cdpropertyfinance.com. (We won't pass your details on to any third parties, it's only for use by CD Property Finance for the distribution of our newsletter).

We have also had two articles published on www.articlesbase.com:

- UK Residential Property Development Market View
- Summary of current UK bank lending for businesses

If you have ideas of articles you would find useful, please do let us know.

Housebuilder Article - Cash Barriers

We are pleased to announce that Chris Dowdeswell of CD Property Finance features prominently in the latest (May 2009) edition of the Housebuilder. This is the official journal of the National House Builders Council who provide the vast majority of new build home warranties.

In the article 'Cash Barriers', Suzie Mayes considers the type of lending now available to developers. She finds from speaking to people like Chris Dowdeswell that while there has been some improvements, getting finance is still a very tough task.

Chris provided comments for use throughout the article. Here's a quick snippet of these words of wisdom:

"If a developer owns their own site with little debt against it, there is a good chance of securing funding because the LTV will then be typically below 55% of gross development value (GDV) which is often acceptable by lenders" Chris Dowdeswell, principal, CD Property Finance.

"If we can see prices stabilise in the next three months, there may actually be some light at the end of the tunnel" Chris Dowdeswell, principal, CD Property Finance.

You can find the full article in this months Housebuilder magazine on pages 46- 49. We would love to hear your comments.

UK Property Market View

There are rumours of greater buyer activity in the residential market but I am sure you will agree that the messages are very mixed. Some developments seem to be selling reasonably well whereas others, for whatever reason, have hardly seen a viewing for months. Our view is that we are in classic early/mid recession "one step forward, two steps back" mode.

This is what happened in the last recession. In spring 1991 everyone was expecting a significant upturn but it was not for another 18 months that the true recovery started. This followed a prolonged period of lower interest rates. Let's hope that the promised increase in new mortgage lending transpires and that one or two more development funders emerge. These two factors should drive the market towards normality again. In this newsletter we have a piece on VAT that is important for developers that are holding completed properties until the upturn.

We also have the excellent news of an established lender returning to the market and who will consider lending on profitable small schemes. As always, your feedback and loan enquiries are most welcome.

Regards,

Chris
www.cdpropertyfinance.com