Over the last 50 years, Together has offered a range of mortgage and secured loan products to individuals and businesses who are typically underserved, overlooked or outright rejected by the major highstreet banks, who prefer to stick to conventional customers. When it comes to specialist lending, the differentiator is the common-sense attitude, which is underpinned by having strong and trusted relationships between the borrower and the lender in question.
But what exactly does relationship-banking mean?
Despite a growing tech and digital involvement,” traditional’ relationship-banking has never been more important. Relationship banking strengthens customer loyalty by providing a single and central point of service and in-person or human contact to support across a range of different financial products and services. In comparison, ‘transactional-banking’, which in some cases we perhaps see more readily adopted by mainstream lenders nowadays, focuses on quick, one-time services, typically via AI, apps or digital banking. Relationship banking is all about the bigger picture and catering to an individual’s needs holistically.
It’s true that the commercial and residential property sector remains a people business. Expertise and relationships remain utterly central to deals and yields. Together has always prided itself on being relationships driven, ensuring we are fostering strong connections with our clients of old, as well as readying ourselves for all new business opportunities that come through our doors.
And it’s not just everyday lending support where relationship-banking plays a critical role. Despite a really challenging economic environment, the property professionals we have engaged with truly value the right kind of partnership and relationship to harness opportunities as they seek to expand their portfolios and enter new growth sectors in both the residential and commercial real estate market as we look ahead to 2025.
Delivering the best customer outcomes
Together strives to deliver the best possible outcomes for our customers. We continually focus on improving our customer processes and responding to changes in customer needs by maintaining a high level of personal conduct, treating customers fairly and ensuring all communications with vulnerable customers are to a high standard. All of this highly important work is underpinned by our long-standing customer relationships which we’ve carefully established and fostered since 1974.
Why we’re proud to be a people-first lender
Together is laser-focussed on identifying where the property professionals we work with can create the most value, be that in the residential, retail or commercial space – offering speed, flexibility, and relationship-driven lending is central to our offering.
This really marks us out as a differentiator in the space as during times when mainstream lenders may be less able to consider lending to certain commercial and residential sectors. We will always take the time to get to know the people behind the business before finalising our decision. It’s key to us to understand what their motivations and ambitions are and how we might be able to best support them.
Our flexibility in product offering as well as having our client relationship and credit underwriting teams work in proximity maintains our competitive speed of response. Feedback from our team suggests a very positive outlook for the residential and commercial market as traditional banks are becoming more restrictive and there is a real need for specialist lenders to help provide funding solutions for opportunities.
And the proof is in the results: Together’s annual results to the year, ending 30th June 2024, show our loan book grew 14.9% in the period, to £7.4billion while we increased our average monthly lending by 7.1% to £249.6million compared to the previous year.
The future for relationship-banking
As we look across the UK commercial and residential property landscape, the scope and diversity of the opportunities is impressive. The optimism of the property market, combined with economic recovery and hopes for a truly supportive government along with a commitment to improving access to housing and challenging affordability, will mean that investors will ultimately be in a strong position to capitalise on these opportunities.
What is essential is having the relationships and experience across the residential and commercial market to ensure that these opportunities can be maximised throughout 2025. Forging strong bonds and pragmatic decision-making with our clients is crucial for us to provide the right type of facility to suit their ultimate ambitions.
Establishing specialist agile support along with a reliable partnership will ensure that when those opportunities are identified, they can be seized and actioned expertly and without delay.
