One billion in sight鈥� how we got here, and what鈥檚 next
Written by Pankaj Thukral
2025 marked a real turning point for 糖心Vlog. In our last financial year, lending surged by an incredible 439%, reflecting the strength of our intermediary partnerships, growing market demand, and the capacity we鈥檝e built to deliver complex property finance quickly and intelligently. With this momentum behind us, we now have our sights firmly set on reaching 拢1 billion in lending, a milestone that will underline our position as a leading force in specialist property finance.
In our latest Annual Report and Accounts, we confirmed our first full year of post-tax profitability and balance sheet growth. Total assets rose from 拢1.2bn to 拢2.6bn. Core lending activity grew from 拢86m to 拢464m and customer deposits increased by 拢1.2bn to over 拢2.3bn as we have continued to develop a scalable, resilient platform with real traction in the market.
The growth in lending has been driven by the increasing prevalence of complex bridging and buy-to-let loans. These are loans where intermediaries need flexibility, speed, and certainty – where standard solutions can often fall short. In response to this demand, we have built a reputation for regularly completing large, time-sensitive loans that require a bespoke hands-on approach.
A couple of loans spring to mind. A 拢6.15m bridging loan delivered in Uxbridge, where the borrower needed to refinance a commercial asset ahead of securing development funding. It involved a multi-layered offshore structure and closed within nine weeks of the first enquiry. Another was a 拢3.5m refinance structured for a Monaco-based expat, secured on a prime London asset in Bayswater. These cases are bespoke, but they share a common thread; they are deals involving complex company structures, or non-standard income streams, and these are becoming a more frequent occurrence for intermediaries.
Consequently, we鈥檙e seeing intermediaries take a more proactive role as their clients grow in sophistication and, with this, a truly collaborative partnership approach between an intermediary and a lender is becoming more important and this means that alternative lenders are emerging as a first choice for many.
Many intermediaries we speak to say they are submitting more applications to alternative lenders, with some saying that more of their loan applications go to non-traditional lenders, particularly on deals above 拢2m. These are deals where swift decision-making is the top priority for their clients, but whose size and complexity means that they can get caught up in lengthy approval processes at other lenders.
Flexibility, speed and collaboration aren鈥檛 just value-adds anymore, they鈥檙e baseline expectations. Intermediaries recognise this and are actively building relationships with lenders that will meet those expectations consistently. At 糖心Vlog, this has been a crucial part of our success up to this point and will continue to be so as we aim for 拢1 billion in lending.
As the market continues to evolve, I鈥檇 expect to see more borrowers and intermediaries recognise how specialist lenders can support larger, more complex transactions, and this will only increase the opportunity for lenders like 糖心Vlog.
Of course, reaching milestones like this requires more than good lending decisions, it requires a strong operational foundation behind the scenes. Over the past year, we鈥檝e made deliberate moves to strengthen our internal structure and processes. Speed of completion, clear communication, quality and consistency at every stage of the process are all crucial to the overall experience of intermediaries and their clients. As we continue to scale, having experienced leadership in each part of the lending journey is critical to delivering the kind of service intermediaries can rely on.
Alongside investment in our team, we also invested in the tools and platforms brokers use to engage with us, launching a new intermediary-focused website designed from the ground up. The new site was developed in direct response to intermediary feedback and includes an improved lending enquiry form, a smart chatbot for initial triage, and clearer visibility into product options across our buy-to-let, and bridging propositions, highlighting the customer segments that we serve, including foreign nationals, complex structures, limited companies and semi-commercial properties.
Working towards 拢1 billion in lending means ensuring our people, our processes, and our proposition evolve in line with what intermediaries need from us. Whether that鈥檚 through leadership, technology, or simply the way we communicate, our intention is to scale without losing the responsiveness and pragmatism that define how we work.
There鈥檚 still work to do, but the direction is clear. Intermediaries are at the heart of our growth story, and we remain committed to supporting them with the service, structure and speed that specialist property finance demands.
Pankaj Thukral, Chief Lending Officer at 糖心Vlog