Shahmoz Rafiq

What do you enjoy about the specialist lending market?

“It’s the weird and wonderful deals,” he said.

“When I was advising on regulated residential deals, a lot of it was really straightforward and vanilla. The majority of what I did was just a tick box exercise.

“But when you move into specialist lending, I find it human – real problems, real world scenarios, and trying to problem solve to a much better degree.”

Answering the question “what can we do to make a deal work?”, rather than being fixed to rigid tick boxes, is what drives Shahmoz in the current market. Thankfully, we have nothing to do with tick-box lending here at Market Financial Solutions.

Every deal we, and Shahmoz works on will be underwritten from day one. But why should brokers bring their deals to Shahmoz?

What is it that you offer to brokers that work with you?

The variety of roles Shahmoz has held in his background helps with his broker relationships.

“I can relate to my brokers because I can relate to the experiences they’ve had. For example, when I was a relationship manager, I was presenting to the board and the credit committee. I’ve acted in an underwriting capacity. I’ve written policy for high street lenders. I say my background allows me to connect with brokers in multiple ways.”

He points out that this experience not only helps get deals done, but also allows him to be especially empathetic with his brokers. This understanding is crucial in a market facing a relative uphill struggle in the current economy.

What would you like to see introduced or prioritised within the specialist finance market?

Surprisingly, with those reaching out to Shahmoz in the North West at least, there seems to be a bit of hesitation in bringing deals to a specialist lender in the first place. Inexperience may be playing a part here.

“It’s why I think we should all start with what I started with – education,” he added.

“We need to try to ease these worries and tensions. Brokers who are so heavily scrutinised in the regulated market are uneasy when you tell them that unregulated finance is not like that.

“You can get a deal across, we can look at it and if there’s an issue in the background – that’s it, you’ve failed your client.”

Shahmoz has sympathy for these uncertain newbie brokers, however. He’s been there. When he first started in the industry, he was constantly worried about things going wrong because he “didn’t know enough about anything”.

Education may hold the key to resolving this.

“Just to say to these brokers: look, whatever the situation is, let’s talk it through, and if we can get it through, we’ll do it.”

On education, we have range of blogs, guides, and reports available on our website which break down everything you need to know about the utility of specialist finance. If you’re ever unsure of where you stand, please have a browse.

Where do you think there could be opportunity for property investors in the current market?

It seems we’re seeing a rising trend of brokers taking more of an interest in larger, perhaps more complicated real estate.

“I’m getting a lot more questions on HMOs and MUFBs. Some are approaching me with queries about converting student accommodation into HMOs.

“So, it’s exciting to see that brokers are entertaining those conversations. They’re wanting to get more educated on the specialist finance market, and I think they like being able to pick up the phone to call us and we’ll tell them everything they need to know.”

Are there any typical borrowers or cases that you tend to work with?

Despite being quite new to Market Financial Solutions, Shahmoz is still seeing a notable trend in the North West.

“I’ve had more portfolio landlords than I would have expected rather than just single asset holders or early-stage investors. Plenty of borrowers who have got maybe 10, 15 properties in their portfolios,” he said.

Often, with these borrowers, “life has happened to them” as Shahmoz puts it, and they’re turning to specialist finance to get them out of a tricky situation.

Fortunately, we are primed to support those facing unexpected challenges in their careers, or even their personal lives.