City + Capital are currently representing an established & fast-growing specialist property finance lender who are looking to expand their credit & underwriting division.

The team growth is being driven by access to additional institutional funding and is underpinned by an ongoing growth trajectory with loan book expansion in mind.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a well-known and progressive lender, offering the chance to take ownership of complex property finance transactions, contribute to lending decisions and develop your career within a progressive environment.

The Company

Our client are renowned for supporting property developers and investors with access to funds for important projects. Loans include commercial term mortgages, as well as short term property finance loans, such as bridging finance.

The business has developed a strong reputation for understanding the needs of borrowers, developing their product set to meet those demands, and delivering efficient funding solutions, supported by a knowledgeable and commercially minded team.

The lender is extremely well backed with institutional funding with plans to increase loan applications and completions. Due to this they require an experienced & proactive Senior Underwriter at an important time.

Role Overview

The primary responsibility of the role will be to assess loan applications and make recommendations to the board and credit committee in respect to funding.

As Senior Underwriter it is expected that your experience will allow you to handle larger and more complex lending cases, whilst supporting the junior team members who will work in support of your activity.

Once deals are originated and loan information is supplied, you will assess and structure loans accordingly. You will liaise closely with internal and external loan stakeholders throughout.

Ultimately, you will manage your diary to meet priorities within the lending pipeline and will drive forward decisions on applications to ensure they meet policy and borrower SLA.

Responsibilities

• Assess & underwrite specialist and short-term property finance loans
• Consider property security, borrower circumstances, lending structures
• Review valuation reports, legal documentation & financial information
• Ensure lending decisions comply with policies or exceptions
• Key point of contact for sales, risk, legal and other internal departments
• Key point of contact for legal, QS, brokers and other external stakeholders
• Monitor transactions and reassess risk as applications progress
• Manage an active pipeline of applications, ensuring standards of delivery
• Coordinate funding requirements for transactions approaching completion
• Identify opportunities to improve underwriting processes and efficiencies
• Contribute to credit committee decisions
• Provide guidance and support to junior underwriting colleagues

Candidate Requirements

The ideal candidate for this role must have prior experience in bridging finance underwriting and will ideally have experience in lending against semi-commercial or commercial property assets.

As a result, you will be analytical in approach, strong with detail & will demonstrate the requisite credit skills and principles that underpin specialist lending.

You will be a strong communicator in all aspect and able to direct internal and external stakeholders to achieve required outcomes. You will be happy to act as mentor to junior team members that work with you on your complex loans.

• A minimum of 4 years' experience within short term or specialist underwriting
• Demonstrable track record in successful completions
• A strong understanding of bridging finance and the required credit principles
• Confident managing a pipeline of diverse property finance applications
• Knowledge of property valuations, legal processes and associated lending risks
• Excellent analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence stakeholders
• Ability to prioritise workloads and manage competing deadlines.
• A proactive, organised and commercially aware approach.

On Offer

Our client is ideally looking to pay up to £80k as a basic salary for the ideal individual, relevant to experience. Higher offers could also be considered for exceptional track record and potential.

Salary will be complemented by access to the company's favourable bonus scheme too, which can significantly increase annual take home.

In addition to this, as an established firm, they have a good track record of promoting from within, where excellent performance is delivered. At Senior Underwriter level this could be very prevalent for you also, as the business continues to grow and opportunities to progress internally are realised.

For this role you must be able to commute to Borehamwood.

Next Steps

Our client is very keen to make this hire quickly, due to demand.

On that basis, I am not expecting this role to be available for long!

If this role sounds like one that you are both qualified for and interested in, then we look forward to receiving your application as soon as possible.

Once we have reviewed your application, we will be in touch with an update.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The City + Capital Team