The Intermediary – June 2025 - Flipbook - Page 46
Q&A
RAW Capital Partners
The Intermediary speaks with Tim Parkes, chief executive at
RAW Capital Partners, about human expertise in the face of a
changing international borrower market
RAW Mortgage Fund is celebrating
its 10th anniversary this year. How
would you describe its evolution?
It has certainly been an exciting and quite
enjoyable 10 years. We started off with a very
small team and we had amazing support from
investors and professionals, but it was hard work.
We completed on our first mortgages less than
six weeks after we began putting the ideas and
documentation together.
We have an amazing team that we’ve built,
and we now have more than 25 people in three
locations – Guernsey, London and Southampton.
When we set out, I was determined to provide
great service – the sort of service you used to be
able to get from your bank manager 30 years ago.
Obviously, these days there there’s more work
to be done, more forms to fill in, but we’ve tried
to stay steadfast to that service ethos. We turn
decisions around within 24 hours so that brokers
and borrowers know where they stand.
What we’ve really focused on is looking at
borrowers’ circumstances ‘in the round’, rather
than using a rigid sort of set of criteria, or a tickbox approach.
As a smaller and more bespoke lender, we’re
able to be a bit more fleet of foot, a bit more
specialist in that consideration. We deal with some
quite complex cases, and we’re always prepared to
consider those. There’s a great opportunity where
it’s not a big enough deal for others.
We’ve now got borrowers resident in more than
50 countries. A lot of the mainstream lenders
exclude international borrowers, but throughout
our evolution that flexibility has always remained.
How do you keep that ‘bank
manager’ service?
We get the brokers to tell the story of each
borrower – their makeup and history. So, for
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The Intermediary | June 2025
example, you might have a client who’s now
retired and has got a small income, but a large
amount of assets, or a strong borrower with a
less compelling property. Looking at those things
in proportion and understanding that history
is important.
After that initial in-depth conversation, we try to
build systems which only require one input of data
and are linked to each other. We use automated
communications and standard documentation
which help us to be efficient.
But the thing that makes us unique is our
people. That’s what makes the difference.
What are some key changes to
RAW’s proposition over the years?
Originally, we were expecting to do nearly all
of our business in London, but we’ve certainly
opened up our books much more.
We’re also a bit more flexible on high rises. There
have been lots of developments in London, such as
around Battersea Power Station and Canary Wharf,
and we’re much keener to lend on those types of
developments now than 10 years ago.
The market has moved, and we’ve had to move
with it, albeit still with a focus on the quality of the
property. Compared to other countries, regulation
around high-rise buildings in the UK is really quite
strong. That’s a really positive change. There’s
great opportunity with that sort of property where
it’s well-regulated and well-constructed.
Fundamentally, we’ve always tried to lend
against good quality property in good locations.
What underpins our mortgage is the quality of
the property we’ve lent against, and therefore the
quality of the risk.
We’re careful to lend to borrowers who we
believe will be good payers. That might be because
they’ve got decent income, or because the
property is likely to attract decent tenants.
The recent uplift to 70% max loan-to-value (LTV)
doesn’t change that strategy. It simply expands
our opportunities. We have been very conservative
on LTVs in the past, but expanding that doesn’t
