Leanne Ardron

In October last year, LendInvest promoted Leanne Ardron to head of bridging, after over a decade at the company. Having witnessed the firm’s evolution since its beginning as Montello, she believes transparency and technology have been key to its phenomenal growth, and is determined to continue this legacy

Words by andreea dulgheru

Following in the footsteps of her family, who owned a mortgage brokerage and packager, Leanne was driven to pursue a career in property finance. After working at Opal Home Loans for three years, she was given the chance by Christian Faes and Ian Thomas to join their newly founded specialist lender, Montello— which would later on become LendInvest. After more than 11 years of working through the ranks and proving her value, Leanne was promoted to head of bridging finance in October 2022. Now, she is determined to lead its bridging team to new heights and hit its ambitious targets for this year, while becoming a one-stopshop for all short- and long-term finance.

You’ve been part of LendInvest pretty much from the beginning. How has the company evolved throughout the years?

When I first joined LendInvest 11 years ago, there were only five of us—three of whom were the owners at the time—and we were doing a much smaller amount of bridging loans with massively thick paper files, fax machines and lengthy processes using many Excel spreadsheets. Now, we’ve got over 260 people, a diverse range of capital and implemented a huge amount of technology. It’s been a really incredible journey, and we have even bigger plans for the coming years.

How do you feel about your personal career evolution over the years?

I feel quite proud and honoured that I was given the chance when I was younger. If you were to tell me 11 years ago that I’d do all the things I’ve completed so far, and work in a company with 260 people, I’d have considered that a crazy thought. This just shows how hard work and dedication can get you to become a high achiever. It’s something I’m very proud of.

Since you joined the specialist finance market, how has this sector evolved?

I’d say the biggest change has been the use of technology. Before, brokers were frustrated by having to key everything into manual systems, having paperwork flying everywhere and filling in lengthy application forms. Now, if you look at most lenders, they all have broker portals which offer a faster, more streamlined and thus, more efficient lending process. Completing a loan can be done a lot quicker than before. Apart from that, lenders have become more flexible and pragmatic around their lending criteria. Of course, you still have to pay attention to the macroeconomic factors, but there’s a lot more pragmatism and innovative thinking around lending, and a desire to make mortgages simpler in any way.

What has been your biggest achievement during your career?

Probably leading the creation of LendInvest’s bridging portal before and during Covid-19. When the first lockdown happened, we were already building the tech, but the pandemic accelerated this process. The big thing about this is that we built it all from scratch by ourselves—no third parties were involved. We spoke to brokers and customers to make sure we were building something that could tick all their boxes and make the process easier for both us and them. In the end, we created something that is speeding up the lending process tenfold. It offers the option to use e-signatures for clients, live updates from underwriters so brokers can see exactly what stage their case it at, AVMs and a chat function within our website. The portal also stores basic data, so repeat borrowers don’t have to input the same information multiple times. However, it’s not like speaking to a robot; you still have that that human touch, which is really important. It was a huge project, but the technology we built allowed us to carry on our lending activity as normal, and even led to us doubling our completion volumes—all while keeping the same headcount and maintaining our human touch—so that’s been a really big achievement for me.

We are planning to bring some more innovative products out, as well as enhance our current proposition, focusing on AVMs and the legal process and how we can make it easier and better for brokers and borrowers to obtain finance. We’ll also be looking at offering financial support to improve the energy efficiency of properties; even though the government’s been sidetracked by everything else, I don’t think the proposals are going away. There are lots of companies out there that have great tools that can help with energyefficiency improvements, so we’re speaking to them and seeing if there’s anything we can collaborate on.

In addition, we’ll be enhancing our refurbishment proposition to be able to offer borrowers the choice of light, medium or heavy refurbishment, and the possibility to opt for either a drawdown facility or get everything upfront. Apart from that, we’re looking at making the transition process from a bridging loan to a BTL or a development facility easier with fintech. We want to have a slick process that pulls all the necessary information with one click of a button, so the broker and borrower can move from one facility to another faster and with less hassle.

What are the biggest trends you’ve seen in the specialist finance market recently?

We’ve seen an uptick in our development exit bridging loans, which give developers more time to reach sales at the prices they’re expecting, without the pressure of their original loan expiring and potentially facing extension fees. This also allows developers to potentially take some equity out and start their new project to prevent delays and make sure they’re not missing out on opportunities. Given that there’s still a huge shortage of housing, this is something we’re really keen to assist developers with. We’ve also seen significant demand for bridging loans for property refurbishments in the past six months from investors who are looking to complete a quick purchase, improve the property to add more value, and then either sell it or add it to their portfolio. Regulated bridging is also now becoming a real popular choice, as there’s still uncertainty about where the Bank of England and longer-term interest rates will end—I think this trend will continue, as this allows borrowers to capitalise on opportunities, and gives them an element of comfort for 12 months until they find a suitable exit.

What challenges do you expect to see in the next 12 months?

I think the biggest issue will be the Bank of England interest rate, and where it will end up landing. Many are still expecting it to go up to 4.5%, and that will affect a lot of lenders and people in the market, particularly if swap rates follow. There will also be some problems for lenders that don’t have their tech up to date, as they might struggle to keep up. Speed is of the essence—we’ve got quite a sluggish process when it comes to planning and Land Registry so, if you can fasten up everything else around the lending process using AVMs and online application forms, that will be a good driver of business.

What is one thing that you would like to be added or improved in the specialist finance sector?

I believe brokers and lenders need to be more transparent with each other to maintain a good level of communication. It’s difficult for both parties—for lenders, this is tricky in the current volatile market, as you’re basing everything on predictions. Meanwhile, for brokers, this is challenging as things might change halfway though. However, if things start to come out of the woodwork later, that delays the lending process or, in a worse case scenario, the deal cannot progress any further. This is why transparency is key to a speedy lending process.