Last Updated on: 1st September 2025, 04:59 pm
Are traditional lending models really working in 2025? That is the question borrowers and brokers should be asking themselves. For years, the high street banks have operated on the assumption that property deals can wait, that borrowers will fit around their systems. But the market no longer works like that.
Interest rates have been cut twice this year, bringing the Bank of England’s base rate to 4%. Yet swap rates remain high, keeping borrowing costs above where many expected them to be. Add in rising construction costs and a planning system that slows projects down, and it is clear: this is not a market where delays can be absorbed. Every week counts.
The trouble is that traditional lenders are built for a different cycle. Their products are inflexible, their processes are slow, and their risk appetite tightens just when borrowers need support. That might have been tolerable when there were low rates and cheap debt, but in today’s market, it is a dealbreaker.
Ask yourself: how many projects have stalled this year waiting for a bank to approve a loan? How many brokers have seen a deal fall through because the funding simply could not keep pace with the opportunity? For borrowers, that is real money lost. For the wider market, it is growth delayed.
Part of the problem is red tape. Large lenders operate under capital requirements and compliance systems that make flexibility difficult. Every exception takes weeks, not days, to approve. Borrowers do not have that kind of time, and neither do brokers. Speed is not a luxury; it is survival.
Specialist lenders like TAB exist because the old model is no longer good enough. They move at the pace the market demands. That might mean a bridging loan to secure a site quickly, a refinance to replace expensive development finance, or a commercial mortgage that rewards borrowers for adding value and improving sustainability. In other words, finance is shaped around the deal, not the other way around.
This is where the real question comes in: are traditional lending models helping or holding the market back? If they cannot adapt to volatility, cannot respond to sustainability, and cannot deliver on time, maybe the answer is clear.
The market has moved on and so have borrowers and brokers. The only question left is whether lenders are prepared to do the same. Duncan Kreeger, CEO of TAB, said that they already have because tradition does not close deals, but adaptability does.
