The four things we assess all loans for

As a specialist lender we don’t compete with bank lending. We bridge the gap to bank lending.

Where it’s hard for banks to understand your client’s situation, we make the effort to find a solution. Taking into consideration people’s unique situations is at the heart of what we do.

An example of this were a couple who had bought an investment property off the plans through their trust. The property is an apartment and they had pre-approval from the bank. After they’d paid the deposit there were construction delays, and by the time the apartment was complete the bank’s appetite had changed and they wouldn’t fund the purchase.

The couple had to settle but the bank wouldn’t give them a loan. They got a short-term specialist loan with Southern Cross Partners, secured the apartment, got everything in order and went back to the bank.

Bad things happen to people sometimes. Maybe it's a marital breakup, or a big tax payment someone hasn’t made an allowance for. We can help people through these difficult patches and typically in 12 months’ time they move back to a normal banking structure.

Whatever the reason behind the bank declining your clients’ application, there are other options to pursue, and we know them best. There are no impersonal algorithms here. Instead we put faces to numbers and people at the heart of everything we do.

When mortgage advisors bring us loan applications, we look at four main things:

• A clear exit. We need to know how a person is going to exit their loan with us and when that will be. Ultimately, it’s about making sure people can repay their loans at the end of their lending term.
• Realistic repayments. We’re looking to see if the person taking out the loan can easily make their repayments with us.
• Loan to value ratio. The difference between what a property is valued at and how much we are lending gives us a buffer in case the property needs to be sold unexpectedly.
• There are a few ways we can value a property. Sometimes we’ll have an independent valuer involved and other times we’ve got enough data from other sources. What’s most important is that we can explain to our investors how we decided on the valuation.

We’re big believers in asking questions to find out the reality of your clients’ situation and figure out if we can help. Because we’re 100% independent we have the freedom to operate in ways that work best for your clients. So, next time you’ve got a deal that you think the bank won’t like, give us a call.