One Savings Bank (OSB) has kicked off a strategy to expand its bridging and commercial lending proposition with a leadership shake-up and plans to build the Precise brand’s presence in unregulated bridging.
The bank, which owns the Precise Mortgages, Interbay and Kent Reliance brands, has split up the OSB bridging and commercial lending division into two separate teams.
Marc Callaghan, formerly head of specialist finance, will be promoted to head of commercial lending. Alan Kimber, who previously headed up the Kent Reliance and Precise long-term lending teams, will be promoted to head of bridging.
Opportunities for lending growth
Adrian Moloney (pictured), group intermediary director for OSB, said: “Both bridging and commercial are two of the areas I see growth happening this year.
“As we begin 2025, we want to look at how we can build into the unregulated bridging market. We have the foundations of a very strong brand in Precise.
How to support young landlords
Sponsored by BM Solutions
“We’ve made changes to the sales team, changes behind the scenes in terms of underwriting, and we’re building on two brands, Precise and Interbay, that are really established in commercial and bridging in 2025. It’s an exciting time for the business.”
Neil Richardson, currently the group’s chief sustainability officer, has had his role expanded to include director of real estate and lending operations, commercial and bridging.
Moloney said: “We’ll be looking to Neil to improve the bridging process.
“For example, the potential use of automated valuation models and direct access for brokers to speak to the property team to give that value added service and assurity of the deal before it comes in.”
There are also plans to recruit additional business development managers (BDMs) to support the bridging and commercial teams.
Kimber and Callaghan were chosen to head up the new teams based on their years of experience and knowledge of their respective sectors,
Moloney said: “Alan [Kimber] has been with the business for 12 years. He’s vastly experienced and really well-connected, particularly with the London and South East brokers. He’s got the experience of shaping deals, which the flexibility in our criteria allows, and working with those big accounts to push the Precise brand into non-regulated more complex bridging.”
Focus on commercial
Commercial lending, Callaghan’s new division, is one of the areas Moloney said will be a business focus in 2025, as several positive factors point to growth in the market. He’s also seeing buy-to-let (BTL) landlords looking to diversify into semi-commercial or commercial lettings.
Last year, Interbay completed a £54.5m deal on Central London offices and Moloney expects 2025 to hold similar opportunities.
“It is a really good market to be in this year,” he said.
Cushman & Wakefield’s October Marketbeat Report revealed a 4.3% rise in prime headline office rents over the past year. Headline rents in the city and the West End increased to £85 per square foot (psf) and £142.50 psf respectively during Q3.
Take-up of office space, meanwhile, totalled 3.7 million square feet in Central London and the five main cities – Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester – representing a 26% uplift on Q2 take-up and the five-year quarterly average.
“There are more people back in the offices, in the shops, and online deliveries have risen even more in popularity since Covid, creating demand for warehouses.
“We’ve seen a real demand for that with our Interbay brand, and one of the things we’ve focused on in particular is getting the service right. Marc [Callaghan] has been a major force within the commercial sector, and the depth of his knowledge and expertise are second to none in what can be a particularly complex area of the market.
“I’m really excited to see what we can deliver in 2025 in terms of commercial growth and market share,” Moloney added.
Outside of bridging and commercial finance, Moloney sees a big lending opportunity in BTL product transfers; an option that OSB offers across all its brands.
“We’re quite fortunate; we see quite a lot of repeat business, landlords coming back to us to grow their portfolios.
“It’s about having that embedded relationship, making sure we adapt to clients’ needs and the market’s needs in terms of buy-to-let,” he said.
