With Christmas and the New Year fast approaching, planning for 2015 must now be high on the agenda for all of us. During 2014, the bridging and short-term lending sector enjoyed further growth and recognition as a material and fundamental participant in the property finance world. So what’s in store for 2015?

There’s an expectancy that demand for short term property lending will continue to grow steadily, but with increased competition from a growing pool of lenders, pressure on rates and demands for high service levels; these challenges create a requirement for careful and intelligent strategic planning for any lender to ensure they secure the market share they are looking for.

Lenders need to manage both broker and borrower expectations in terms of service provision and product pricing, and there is clearly a growing expectancy for this to be delivered with a high level of professional and corporate competence. At Bridgebank Capital, we believe that our pricing structure, appetite for lending, capital resources, experience and quality of staff, documentation and Service Level Agreements with our Introductory partners, all set out our stall to meet sector demands going into 2015. We have invested heavily in quality people resources and supporting systems and processes to ensure maximum quality delivery at all times!

This is our strategic objective and challenge for 2015, which will facilitate our own ability to ensure further growth and market share. Across all operational sectors, Bridgebank Capital monitors its level of service provision against a set of internal and external SLAs which ensures that we sustain quality introducer relationships. This suite of SLAs is frequently reviewed to ensure that the service provided is aligned to these timescales, and we appropriately and clearly manage expectations.

Furthermore, confidence in any lender is attained through an ongoing culture of transparent communication between all parties. Establishing long term relationships based on transparency, integrity and continuous communication should therefore be a key priority for lenders and brokers, and this approach must be planned and continuously applied in the year ahead. At Bridgebank Capital, our team of business development managers and their support staff, are tasked with continually identifying initiatives to ensure that we maintain strong relationships with our introducers, that both support and enable the progression of cases through to completion with as little fuss as possible, and that working relationships are healthy, respectful and concrete.

Overall, 2015 represents a challenge for all lenders in a sector that has undoubted growth opportunities, and with confidence and drive demanded by all counterparties operating in the sector, it is essential that effective planning to meet these challenges is carried out now.

Laurence H Goodman is group managing director of Bridgebank Capital