The Financing Regelen advisors see the market changing. Active investors are increasingly looking for renovation financing. There are also more applications for the purchase of commercial real estate. Last but not least, more investors are restructuring their loans to optimize taxation. “Thanks to our good software, we can respond to all these different questions within ten minutes with an optimal offer,” says Raymond Böcker, founder of Financiering Regelen BV.
Financing Regelen has experienced rapid growth in the nine years of its existence, says Raymond Böcker. This growth coincides with the rise of alternative lenders for business financing. “While the traditional major banks are consciously giving up part of the market, these lenders have conquered an important market position in just a few years. We now do business with thirty different parties, such as Nestr, Domivest, SolidBriQ and RNHB. They all have their niches and without exception apply clear conditions.”
Smart software
These clear frameworks, Daan de Geus adds, are easy to process for Financing Arrangements in the software developed in-house by Raymond Böcker. “The real estate finance market has a multitude of parties, which is impossible to keep track of manually. Transparency also decreases. Thanks to our smart software, we have everything in view. We can then provide our customers with an indicative quote within ten minutes about the feasibility of a financing application. With parties where it suits, but usually there are more options. This is not just about the level of interest; it’s also about the conditions. There is a lot to advise about whether or not to borrow partly interest-only, the ratio between loan and value and the speed of money provision. Seven days, ten days or four weeks. Our software makes it all transparent. That makes our work easier and, in my opinion, our advice a lot better.”
If those banking channels do not provide relief, Financiering Regelen has access to financing options from even more alternative financiers. Böcker: “We act in the interests of the customer, it is also the customer who pays us. They can rely on us to achieve the optimum. That is why we always first look for the best conditions that fit within the acceptance frameworks of banks and debt funds. If it doesn’t fit here, we will look at other options. Crowdfunding, bridge parties, parties like Possible, they are all in our system. The conditions there are of course different.” According to him, the chance of success is high. “We are aware of all rates and conditions from day to day. If we accept an application, we are 95 percent certain that a financing option exists and that the timeline in which financing can be achieved is predictable.”
Predictable quote
Another important link in that process, according to Böcker, is a good insight into appraisal values. “When purchasing or refinancing, many customers are partly in the dark about the appraised value of the property they want to finance. We partly use information from data science platform Stellax and partly we can make our own assessment of the value. To this end, we maintain good contact with a number of the fifty to eighty valuation agencies in the Netherlands. They facilitate the proper visualization of the case and that helps in the process of making an ultimate, predictable preliminary quotation.”
In practice, the vast majority of financing comes from debt funds. De Geus: “We see that extensions at the major banks are interesting in terms of the interest rate, but that the conditions in terms of LTV, mandatory repayment or the release of liquidity are less attractive. This is easier with debt funds and we can therefore help our customers with applications ranging from €1.500 to €20 million or more. Even very experienced entrepreneurs are sometimes surprised at what is possible on the real estate financing market today.”
Changing market
Böcker and De Geus see the market changing. Nowadays, just purchasing and renting out is no longer so attractive. This has an effect on financing applications. More than half of the loans concern renovation financing to improve renting or to be able to sell out in a lucrative manner in the long term. Rented real estate is often purchased below the appraised value. The new developing investor then adds significant value. There is also increasing interest in commercial real estate. And another market area concerns restructuring. Investors restructure real estate financing on the advice of accountants to optimize their tax situation.
According to De Geus, residential real estate has not diminished either. “The gist is sometimes that residential investments are no longer interesting, but when I look at our more creative customers, they manage to achieve attractive returns through transformations or after home improvements. But the investor must put more work into his projects. Our financiers are constantly working on product development – retail products, construction depots, transformation financing – in order to serve the market well. If the business case is correct, good financing can be found in those niches at an attractive price.”
