Cushman & Wakefield European Lending Trends report: 95% of banks still lending in UK post-Brexit vote

The fourth edition of the Cushman & Wakefield report released today is based on survey responses of 50 major, active lenders from across Europe and considers views on recent activity as well as trends expected over the next six months.

The latest results show that the overwhelming majority of respondents (95%) said the fallout from Brexit will not stop their lending in the UK, although the overall volume of new loan originations was down across Europe in the past six months. This was in part caused by caution regarding Brexit but in addition was due to slower deal activity in the first half of 2016 across the continent compared to the second half of last year.

Looking ahead, the report states that market conditions remain encouraging across Europe with a positive balance of lenders reporting an increase in originations and refinancing for the coming six months. Some 80% of lenders expect loan originations to be the same, or increasing, compared with the past six months, rising to over 90% for refinancing.

The survey results also revealed that the majority of lenders are providing senior loans, with whole loans and stretch senior loans the next most common reflecting the preference in the market for a single provider.

Edward Daubeney, Director EMEA Structured Finance at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “Our survey shows that Brexit is having little impact on market sentiment from a lending perspective and the fundamentals remain encouraging. The trend towards lending by geography has also not changed significantly over the past six months, albeit the UK’s share has softened marginally in the wake of the vote result. Elsewhere, we see more lending in Central and Eastern Europe and Italy, mostly at the expense of the Nordic countries.

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