Rob's Blog
Welcome to Rob's Blog.
An outspoken and well-respected distributor, Rob Jupp of Brightstar Financial has his say on what's going on within the industry.
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Hello Old Blue Eyes
Tuesday 24th April 2012This is my final blog for a few months as I’ve decided to cut down on some of my media work – it was starting to get a little too much and there’s only so much you can write about bridging! (ed. note: Says who, Rob!) Thanks to all those who have understood when I upset them; I can assure you it was always my intention! I’m delighted to announce that one of the nicest guys in the short term lending industry, Bob Sturges, Head of Communications at Omni Capital is taking over. Whoops, sorry I meant Martin Gilsenan, Omni’s Sales Director. Naturally, Bob will have nothing to do with this… The last seven days have been nice and busy - there appears to be no end in sight for bridging and commercial finance. Speaking to a few of the lenders and distributors at B&C’s Directors' Lunch last Thursday, it was good to see that this is a feeling shared by pretty much everyone in the industry. It was good to catch up with most of the 80 invited guests and to spend a few hours with the ‘bridging hard-core’ afterwards. When I left members of West One Loans, Enterprise Finance,...
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Higher LTVs for FTBs
Tuesday 17th April 2012It’s nice to be back after an extremely rainy five days at Disneyland Paris with my lovely family. I was amazed to hear that the park was €1.9 billion in debt which is surprising when you pay as much as you do to stay there, visit the theme parks and attempt to eat there. My previous visit was arranged at better times back in 2007. We stayed at the Disneyland Paris Resort and were upgraded to the private area, enjoying breakfast and dinner with the Al Maktoum family. Five years later, we stayed in a clad caravan with fake wooden logs and no breakfast. Our next door neighbours weren’t members of The Dubai Royal Family but a schoolboy football team from North Wales. The weather was predictably bad and the French were predictably French! It’s fair to say that I have never been happier to get back to the ‘bosom of business’ and Friday came too slowly. When I arrived back at work I was reminded by our excellent office manager that we were having a visit that day from Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (he is also the boss of Housing Minister, Grant Shapps). Mr...
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Bank holidays are bad for your health!
Tuesday 3rd April 2012It is perhaps fitting that the UK’s first ever bank holiday was organised by a banker! In 1871 liberal politician and banker, Sir John Lubbock, introduced the Bank Holidays Act. A century later, The Banking and Financial Dealings Act has led to the various ‘bank’ holidays we get now. The aim was to give the common man and woman (I think the latter followed in the 1950’s) some additional time away from the hardships of work. Therefore why is it, like many other thousands of other Britain’s, I am at my office desk way in to the wee hours? Quite simply, I am trying to ‘fit’ five days of work into four! Poxy bank holidays – poxy liberals! Well done to the team at Dragonfly Finance for winning another award last week, this time Business MoneyFacts Award for the UK’s Best Short Term Lender. Rumour has it that Jonathan Samuels’ team is having to move out of their plush Old Bailey offices because their trophy cabinet is getting too big. Well done also to United Trust Bank for winning Best Service Provider for a Short Term Lender, again richly deserved. I attended my first Association of Bridging Professionals (aobp) Executive meeting on Monday...
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Kriss Akabusi and Rubix cubes
Tuesday 27th March 2012Last week was definitely a week of two halves for me. The first part of the week was, in a word, ‘horrific’. Most of my pipeline appeared to be ‘playing up’, especially my big cases and by Wednesday afternoon I decided that I needed some time out away from the pressures of business. I decided to go and watch my son play football at his school. Within five minutes of my arrival I had been found by one of the Dads who wanted to talk about a potential £1.5 million bridge on three development sites; proof enough that this job is a 24/7 one and ‘there is no rest for the wicked.’ I’m away a week after next for a few days at Disneyland Paris; I wonder whether Mickey and Minnie require short term financing to fund an extension to ‘The Magic Kingdom?’ The back end of my working week was much more civilised and back to business as usual. I do often think that our job is like solving one giant Rubik’s cube; at times you could happily launch it at the wall, but something inside (not the voices in my head) tells you to keep going and to work harder...
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The week that was
Tuesday 20th March 2012The last seven days have been and gone in a blink! I honestly can’t think of a time when I’ve been busier professionally so much so that my three days in Marbella were spent mostly on the phone and not around the pool, which I guess in March is probably not such a bad thing. I’m getting some really great service at the moment from the likes of Dragonfly Property Finance, West One Loans, Masthaven Bridging Finance, United Trust Bank and Lancashire Mortgage Corporation. I can’t believe how much the short term financing market has improved in the past 12 months and I think its biggest driver has been the wealth of competition and long may that continue. My only real grumble this week is with solicitors. I know we need them and they do a great job but please can I ask the legal brethren to treat us as a useful tool that can provide assistance in getting transactions completed quicker and not the devil incarnate. We don’t care just about our commission and most of us have a desire to see our client complete in a satisfactory and timely manner. Many congratulations to one of my two right hand men, Kit Thompson,...
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