Is Property Finance Available? This is the first of a series of articles looking at the availability of finance and how to access it in today’s market by Malcolm Jones and Cliff Verrill of Brooklands Commercial Finance.

Lenders have come in for a lot of criticism, some of it deservedly so. However, in realigning their strategies so that they don’t repeat earlier mistakes, they are undergoing a difficult balancing act. On the one hand they have learnt lessons in respect of riskier lending propositions and have rightly curbed activities in these areas and some have pulled out of them altogether. On the other hand, the regulators have imposed stricter controls on bank activities. While the government is saying that banks must lend more, the Basel III accord requires banks to hold more capital to support their lending activities. It also introduced new regulatory requirements on bank liquidity and bank leverage. As a consequence, there are fewer funds to lend as the banks manage their balance sheets to conform to the new regulation. Continue reading Don’t bash the banks →