Bridging loan firm, SoMo, has reported a 25% increase in its second charge lending.

Nearly 50% of all its loans are now for second charge lending.

Rob Johnson, SoMo’s head of underwriting, said: “Second charge lending is a niche market and we see a lot of potential in London and the South East, which mainly concentrates on first charge lending. We want to educate Brokers about the potential of second charge lending; the message coming from our network is that they’re surprised by the demand and delighted that this type of loan can be used for a variety of purposes.

“Coming out of the pandemic, we’ve been working with many businesses looking to raise funds by way of second charge loans – some to keep their businesses afloat and others to jump on new opportunities that have arisen.  Whether it’s to purchase a buy-to-let property, pay off a tax bill or simply grow a business with new premises, materials or marketing, we’re finding brokers, intermediaries and clients are turning to SoMo because we’re able to offer a specialist and solution based approach to second charge lending, a leading LTV of 70% against the OMV and rates from 0.6% pcm.

“As a business overall, we’re lending more month-on-month and year-on-year and we see second charge loans to be an important part of our growth strategy.”