The high street banks are pulling back from smaller property investors. The data is clear, but the opportunity that sits alongside it is what's worth paying attention to - specialist lenders are the way forward for most smaller investors. Karis Capital's research shows a 14% decline in bank lending to smaller property investment businesses since 2021, while lending to larger corporate investors grew by 20%. High street banks are deploying capital more efficiently by chasing bigger deals, and smaller borrowers are increasingly outside their appetite. This isn't a temporary blip. It reflects a structural shift in how regulated banks are allocating capital, and it's unlikely to reverse quickly. For property investors who have historically relied on high street lenders, this is a prompt to reassess the finance relationships they're building. At the same time, property prices in some of the country's most desirable locations have fallen sharply: City of London down 20.2% Westminster down 11.3% Kensington and Chelsea down 7.5% These are corrections in markets that rarely give ground. The investors best placed to move on those opportunities are those already working with specialist and non-bank lenders who understand bespoke lending, move faster, and are genuinely comfortable with smaller lot sizes. The window and the tools both exist. The question is whether your finance strategy is set up to use them. What's your experience been like with lender appetite recently, are you noticing the shift?  #PropertyInvesting #PropertyInvestor #MortgageBroker #MortgageAdvisor #MortgageAdvice #PropertyDeveloper #PropertyDevelopers #PropertyDevelopment

Posted by Rob Peters at 2026-07-13 16:11:50 UTC