LendInvest lent £500 million to help professional property investors, developers and landlords buy, build or renovate around 1800 homes during 2017.

This represents a 33% increase on the previous year’s £375 million lending record. LendInvest has now lent a total of over £1.2 billion to property investors and developers.

Over the year, LendInvest added five new products to its loan range and now offers a total of eight loan types, each designed specifically for different borrower requirements. The new additions included refurbishment finance, pre-construction finance and professional buy-to-let loans.

The company also made senior hires into its sales team, including the appointment of Ian Boden as sales director who joined after several years running Aldermore’s commercial lending business. At the same time, LendInvest expanded its team of field-based business development managers, increasing up its lending capacity outside London and the Southeast.

Christian Faes, co-founder and CEO at LendInvest, said: “Surpassing the £500 million milestone for annual lending was a great way to close off a fantastic year for the business. Despite an unexpected snap general election in June and the continued weight of Brexit negotiations on the general economy, we are just as confident as our customers in the resilience of the professional property investment market.

“Demand for high quality lending products has not wavered. We expect to see this appetite increase again in 2018, as we further consolidate our dominant share of the short-term lending market and rapidly roll out our buy-to-let loan offering.”