SME specialist Recognise Bank has agreed a £416,000 fixed rate loan solution for a family business.

Lancashire-based Newman Estates had been looking for a five-year fixed rate loan to protect the business against the uncertainty of prevailing interest rate volatility on three multi-unit residential properties.

The units form part of an overall nine-strong buy-to-let residential portfolio owned by the family property investment firm whose aim is to amortise debt in order to pass the portfolio over to their children debt free at retirement.

Owners Ben and Julie Newman called on broker Kevan Reid of North West Commercial Solutions, an appointed representative of Synergy, to find a solution earlier this year.

Despite having invested considerable time and paid numerous fees, they were let down by other lenders before Reid then introduced Mike Doxford, Recognise Bank’s business development manager to the Newmans to find a suitable solution for their business.

Reid said: “It is frustrating that finance options are not easily available to help solid family-owned businesses like this. Once we’d approached Recognise, we got an initial decision very quickly and the deal was completed within seven weeks, which is very rare these days.

“It helped massively to have a direct relationship manager that we could pick up the phone to and Mike ensured the entire process ran very smoothly.”

The new fixed rate loan uses Recognise’s PBTL product, which is specifically designed for property investors and landlords with multi-property portfolios of four or more properties.

Doxford added: “At Recognise Bank we provide tailored and flexible solutions for buy-to-let portfolio landlords. Here we crafted a solution for the customers to reflect their needs, hedging against volatile rate rises, repayment of the loan at maturity as part of future wealth planning and an understanding of multi-unit asset types offered to us.

“The customer had wasted lots of time and money pursuing a number of options before Kevan approached us to help. At Recognise we have some of the most experienced property lenders in the business which, together with our massive investment in digital technology, means we are geared up to be able to push through decisions quickly and smoothly and we were delighted to help.”