LONDON - May 24, 2021 - UK Independent Mortgage Broker Offers Insight into Lockdown Lending

Shortly after the first lockdown restrictions came into place, lenders were quick to tighten their lending criteria, to try and protect themselves from the expected risk of higher unemployment levels and people struggling to pay off mortgages and loans.

Commercial finance was affected in a similar way, with so many businesses being forced to close during lockdown, the commercial finance landscape lurched into unknown territory.

Many businesses were provided with financial support in the form of furloughing, business interruption loans and bounce back loans but others were unable to apply for these. Some lenders offered holiday payments for commercial finance, so there were numerous financial support options in place to try and help struggling businesses survive the pandemic.

Interest-Free Business and Commercial Loans

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)

SME businesses have been able to access business interruption loans for lost revenue and cashflow disruptions. The CBILS was also made available to businesses whose growth requirement could not be supported under standard bank lending criteria. Under the scheme, businesses who had been adversely affected by the pandemic could apply for loans of up to £5million.

The first 12 months of the loan is interest-free and the interest rates after a year for the CBILS scheme were set by the lenders. Some lenders provided the loans with an interest rate as low as 1.4%, while at the higher end of the scale, some lenders were offering the loans with a 8.9% interest rate. Terms were available for up to 10 years.

To encourage more lending, the government also guaranteed loan repayments, with the borrower being fully liable for the debt.

Lenders were able to provide the following finance under the CBILS scheme:
Term loans
Overdrafts
Invoice finance
Asset finance

As an independent UK Commercial Mortgage Broker (https://www.uk-commercialfinance.co.uk/) we carefully examine all options including the latest Buy-to-Let mortgage (https://uk-mortgagebroker.co.uk/buy-to-let/) offers from leading whole of market lenders across the UK.
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Commercial Finance Network