Lender appetite is strongest in the North West and East of England, according to the third-quarter edition of Brickflow’s MarketWatch report.
Based on 4,016 searches on the specialist property finance marketplace, covering £10.4bn of property, the data shows 72% of North West deals and 67% of East of England deals received at least one Decision in Principle (DIP), a lender’s initial indication that it will back a loan. The figure for London was 60%.
Lender appetite tracks regional markets
Local property markets appear to play a part. HM Land Registry figures show North West house prices up 4.4% in the year to July, second only to the North East among English regions, while London prices are down 3.3%. Scotland recorded the lowest share of deals receiving a DIP, at 50%, even though Lloyds data shows prices there up 3.6%, which suggests lender appetite has yet to catch up.
Demand also shifted by sector. The value of property searched in leisure and hospitality rose 39% to £820m, while healthcare increased 31% to £321m. The average search was larger than in Q2 in both sectors, at around £4.6m in leisure and hospitality and £6.3m in healthcare.
Wider investment data points the same way. Savills reports UK hotel investment of £2.1bn in the first half of 2026, almost £500m more than a year earlier, and healthcare deal volumes are expected to strengthen in the second half after a record 2025.
Bridging made up 2,506 of the searches (£3.6bn), commercial mortgages 761 (£1.3bn) and development finance 749 (£5.5bn).
The value of residential property searched fell 35%, mirroring the wider housebuilding picture. S&P Global reports that housebuilding was the weakest part of UK construction in August, with the sector as a whole shrinking for a twentieth month in a row. Searches come at the start of a deal, so they give an early read on where borrowers are heading.
Multi-let residential, which covers properties let to several tenants, held firm. Search numbers were broadly unchanged on Q2, while the value of property searched rose 20% to £373m, making it the only residential category to grow.
Specialist lenders Somo and Breeze Capital also joined Brickflow’s lender panel during the quarter, giving brokers two more lenders to compare in a single search. MarketWatch is built on live platform activity and more than 200,000 lender data points that are continually updated.
“Our Q3 activity tracks a wider market that has been subdued, including in residential, where housebuilding has had a difficult year,” said Sabinder Robinson-Sandhu, head of growth at Brickflow.
“Alongside that, there are real positives in the data: the value of property searched is up in leisure and hospitality, healthcare and multi-let residential, and lender appetite is strongest in the North West and East of England. Challenging conditions are when the quality of information matters most. Manual loan sourcing can only show part of the market.
"A market-wide search opens up the true lending picture, and gives brokers and their clients the best possible chance of securing the right finance.”
