Pilot Fish

08/01/2025

Its a Happy New Year present from our lenders as they slash rates!

A week into 2025 and rates have been cut by many lenders. High leverage bridging loans now from 0.74%, shorter term bridging from 0.45% per month, development finance from 8.6% per annum.

2024 was a year of constant changes in products and rates. I would expect this trend to continue throughout 2025. The lending market is competitive driving innovation and rate cuts. Coupled with potential base rate cuts that is good news for borrowers.

However I would not anticipate further large rate cuts to come so holding off business investment or growth for significant cheaper lending may not pay off. There is also no getting away from the polictical and economic volatility that we face which has the potential to stall or reverse these rate reductions. For many getting on with their growth plans now, rather than delay, will still be the best option.

Ewan Clarke and John Shevlane are always on hand to give you the latest updates across business and property finance.

08/04/2024

Our Property Finance expert .shevlane joined today to host a development finance special for their monthly Platinum Mastermind.
Fantastic to have guest speakers from , Octane, .finance and Goldentree join us to share valuable insights into the development finance process and lender appetites. you!

18/03/2024

.shevlane presenting at the last week talking all things property finance with live deal examples of:

•85% bridging loan, for projects £75k
•Development finance options for heavy refurb, conversion and ground-up

Click through to see recent case studies using these products including:

🏚️conversion of a Victorian property to 2x MUFBs
🏘️development finance for 48 unit ground-up scheme
🏗️hotel conversion to 5x luxury apartments

Thanks to and to for hosting another great event!

16/01/2024

Introducing the Property Pioneers Bulletin! Our new monthly update for property developers and investors packed with guides, templates and advice delivered by our experts. At Pilot Fish we source funds for projects across a range of scales, from multi-million pound large scale developments, to supporting first time developers with their initial project. We’ve secured finance for all types of investment properties including HMOs, MUFBs, BTLs, Holiday Let’s, Commercial Units and more. We know what lenders want to see and what you’ll need to prepare in advance to give you the best chance of a quick ‘yes’. Our property bulletin will focusses on a product each month and will give you the full lowdown: how does it work, are you eligible, how much can you borrow, what do you need to prepare, how to present your project to lenders, how to create your CV, the end to end process and more! If you’d like to receive our first instalment launching at the end of this month, visit the link in our bio and sign up today!

04/01/2024

Team Pilot Fish are back and we’re excited to kick off the new year in our new HQ in central Peterborough! We’re looking forward to catching up with everyone. For local connections come visit us in our new home - we can recommend the coffee 😀

09/11/2023

Great to get out and see the guys at to view the progress on their Greater Manchester site:

Property: Former care home
Product: Phased development loan
Scheme: Conversion to 16 apartments, sold pre completion

We love the part of our role where we get to celebrate our clients successes. Well done guys 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

17/10/2023

That view 👀👀🌊☀️

We are delighted to share the progress of our client’s luxury development project on the North Yorkshire coast.

Project details:

•First time developer
•Conversion of an existing hotel into five luxury seafront apartments
•Residential development loan for £1.2M
•Loan completed within 7 weeks of initial consultation
•First unit sold with the remaining on schedule

We can’t wait to visit the finished project next month!

13/10/2023

Great to attend and present at last night. Thanks to for another great event 👍

Our property expert, John Shevlane, shared an update on all things property finance.

Key points:

👷Good news for proprty developers. Market expectation is that we’ve reached the peak base rate and we’re seeing that reflected in longer term product pricing.

🏗️Current advice is to budget for 5.25-5.5% interest rate plus the lender margin on your development finance

🏘️Landlords can expect to see a wider range of products across the market. Lenders are adapting quickly to serviceability stressors introducing higher arrangement fees to keep monthly costs down.

If you’re looking for more info for your personal circumstances, please give the office a call to chat to John directly 💬

05/10/2023

Yes!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻👏🏻👏🏻

We were absolutely delighted to pick up not one, but two Highly Commended gongs at this years prestigious awards!

The Pilot Fish team were highly commended Cashflow Broker of the Year and Short-term Broker of the Year.

None of it is possible without the support for our clients and partners and of course our dedicated team. Thanks to all who voted and supported.

06/02/2023

A stunning example of a BRR project in the heart of York 🖤🖤 Read how we financed the purchase, development and long-term commercial mortgage for this stunning holiday let. We placed this project with a lender who could issue a commercial bridge to support a quick purchase, which could transition to a residential development loan, saving our client a significant amount in arrangement and legal fees 🙌🏻
To stay at this beautiful holiday let visit The Georgian Townhouse York.

12/09/2022

Congratulations to our Finance Consultant Robin Edlington who has successfully placed a £500K RCF facility for a portfolio landlord.

An RCF (revolving credit facility) is a flexible cash flow facility that can be drawdown as and when needed. Similar to an overdraft, the loan amount can be drawn down, repaid and redrawn any number of times.

They’re a great facility for businesses to ease cash flow fluctuations but many property investors are unaware that these facilities can also be used to fund portfolio acquisitions. They are particularly useful when purchasing at auction.

When speaking of the facility Robin commented "RCF's are an excellent product for portfolio landlords seeking to make quick acquisitions in the current market. Our client can now act quickly and confidently when a buying opportunity presents itself with the knowledge there is a flexible cash facility in place ".
     

01/09/2022

One week to go until the Pilot Fish Garden Party 🥂

Join over 60 local business owners and professionals for networking and champagne afternoon tea!

Funds raised from this event will go to the brilliant Don't Lose Hope Community Cafe who do fantastic work with our local community 👏

The annual Pilot Fish Garden Party