Paragon plans to lend £1 billion to buy to let professionals

Paragon plans to lend £1 billion to buy to let professionals

14:41 PM, 26th November 2010, About 14 years ago 1

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Paragon Mortgages logoBuy to let specialist lender Paragon Mortgages has announced a 32% rise in profits as the firm looks to reassert its former position as a major funder of professional landlords by lending £1 billion.

After nearly three years away from the market, the lender has opened for new business after securing £200 million backing from the Macquarie Bank in Australia.

Paragon had to stop lending in February 2008 after credit dried up in the recession.

Paragon said landlords were witnessing high rental demand as the current depressed state of the housing market has resulted in would-be homebuyers renting in larger numbers and for longer periods because they cannot obtain a mortgage or raise funds for a deposit.

The firm had an £8.3 billion lending book at the end of September – when new lending restarted.

Credit performance of the mortgage book over the year was “exemplary”, with three-month plus arrears in buy to let standing at only 0.83% against a market average of 2.45%.

Lending programme expected to expand

The resulting 40.5% fall in provisions for bad debt to £39.2 million contributed to a rise in pre-tax profits to £71.8 million from £54.3 million in the previous year.

“Low interest rates have increased affordability for customers, reducing the incidence of new arrears and assisting the correction of past arrears. The loan books continue to be carefully managed and credit performance remains in line with our expectations,” said a statement from the company.

Paragon plans to lend the £200 million and then securitise the loans as an asset to borrow further funds to contribute towards a £1 billion lending target for the year to professional buy to let landlords.

“While the UK economic environment remains challenging with the outlook for growth, unemployment and house prices all uncertain, the group enters the new financial year with a term-funded, high quality loan book,” said Paragon.

“We expect that our new lending programme will expand over time and will be complemented by increasing opportunities to acquire loan portfolios.”


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Roger Davies

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9:27 AM, 30th November 2010, About 14 years ago

'New Loans from Paragon' You need to check the small print. A new buy to let mortgage converts from an interest only to an interest and capital repayment mortgage after 5 years.

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