YBS Commercial grows balance sheet to more than £2bn in 2024, lending close to £500 million to commercial investors and landlords

YBS Commercial Mortgages, the commercial lending arm of Yorkshire Building Society, has revealed it had another strong year in 2024, as commitment to broker relationships and personalised service catalysed the growth of its balance sheet to £2.2bn.

The commercial lender completed £0.453bn of commercial mortgage loans during the year; £377m of which went into servicing the private rental sector, demonstrating its continued strength amidst market challenges including higher interest rates and increasing regulation. Meanwhile, £76m went into commercial real estate which includes the lender’s commercial investment, semi-commercial and owner-occupied product offerings.

YBS Commercial achieved this impressive growth via a combination of business improvements in response to broker feedback – centred on deepening its support for them while maximising efficiencies internally. This included expanding its business development and regional lending teams to better support broker engagement and increase the lender’s reach in the market. These changes focussed on ensuring brokers have a named point of contact throughout the customer’s application journey, delivering a personal service every step of the way.

The year also saw YBS Commercial Mortgages venturing into new markets, with the launch of a new product to support owners of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) who occupy their property for business purposes, helped through the application process by a dedicated team of relationship directors.

Process improvements to benefit borrowers included the introduction of shortform valuations to estimate market value, as well as a new process to carry out valuations before receipt of underwriting approval. The commercial lender also introduced a process to apply proportionality to the amount of information requested according to the level of risk posed by a deal, meaning that lower risk cases were able to progress quicker. Each of these changes were a direct result of broker feedback, designed to save customers time and money, resulting in case turnaround times from offer to completion reducing by an average of 13.5% in 2024 due to the enhancements made.

In the summer, Angela Norman joined as head of lending, and was soon promoted to interim managing director. Angela has helped enact a clear strategy for the business focused on enhancing the customer journey by listening to and acting on feedback from brokers and colleagues, and making changes to create better customer experiences – and this work continues into 2025.

Angela said: “We’re really proud of what we achieved in 2024 and have made great strides in a number of different areas – from strengthening our teams on the ground to branching out into new markets and helping more borrowers. Assisting those who occupy their property for business purposes demonstrates our commitment to purposeful lending and supporting local communities.

“The process-driven improvements we’ve made so far are key to our success, and are a clear focus for 2025 as we set our sights on digital efficiencies, delivering for brokers and customers, and optimising the customer journey even further.

“Hitting over £2 billion on the balance sheet is testament to the success of the adjustments we’ve made, and speaks to the stability we offer as a lender – as part of Yorkshire Building Society – as well as to our commitment to the commercial market.

“We have exciting plans for this year – enhancing our current propositions, and, of course, listening to feedback from our trusted broker panel, to continue our focus on improving the customer journey to better support brokers and customers.”