Funding Circle has launched a short-term bridging product.

The move bolsters Funding Circle’s existing range of property finance loans, which include commercial mortgages, development and investment loans.

This comes a year after extending the types of loan on offer to include property finance for small businesses who develop or invest in property. Over the last 12 months, investors have lent more than £60 million on property loans.

Property developers and investors can now request a range of short-term loans for almost any purpose, including:

• equity release against unencumbered properties;
• quick acquisitions of development sites, with the speed of execution allowing borrowers to negotiate discounts;
• land purchases where the developer wishes to optimise planning permission prior to refinancing onto a more traditional development finance package;
• refurbishment loans, following which borrowers will refinance onto traditional buy to let mortgages;
• auction purchases.

Parik Chandra, property finance spokesperson at Funding Circle, said: “Since we extended the loans we offer to small businesses to include property finance a year ago, we have been inundated with demand from successful property professionals who continue to find it difficult to access finance from traditional sources.

“Being able to provide a bridging product means we now offer the full suite of commercial property products, providing the liquidity that the property market needs and supporting projects across Britain. A modern property market needs modern finance – finance that is fast, flexible and simple.”