Joseph Eichenblatt, co-founder of Equity Access, reveals how the lender’s new Hyper Bridge product is revolutionising private lending with hyper-fast settlements and industry-leading LVRs, giving brokers a crucial edge in today's boom market.
You co-founded Equity Access in 2023. What gap in the market did you see that you wanted to fill?
A lot of private lenders are running around with the same wholesale funding lines that are just reskinned under a different name. But we are funded by private family offices. That means, when the broker or the customer comes to us, they’re dealing with the decision-makers. We can sit around a table, look at the deal and, if it makes sense and we’re happy with it, we’re going to do the deal.
Being able to be nimble and flexible and work through stuff, I think it gives us a unique edge.
Plus, we aim to turn a deal around in five business days - all the way from commitment fee paid to settlement.
What are you able to fund at Equity Access?
At the moment, we're a non-coded lender so we're just doing business loans backed by Australian property primarily in Eastern Seaboard Metro locations (all the way up from Geelong to Sunshine Coast), plus South Australia and Canberra. And we will, in the near future, step into WA, as well.
Your core products are first and second mortgages. What are their loan and LVR ranges?
The first mortgages range from $500,000 to $25 million secured against residential, commercial, industrial, and retail property. The second mortgages go from about $400,000 to $7-8 million.
The typical LVRs that we lend on for these first and second mortgages go up to 75 per cent. We may be able to go up to 80 per cent in good locations, in some cases, too.
But we’ve just launched a new Hyper Bridge product, which is a first mortgage that goes up to 90 per cent LVR. This is a short-term bridging product, with loan terms from two to six months.
Who does the new 90 per cent Hyper Bridge product cater to?
We envision primarily three types of customers:
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Somebody who is looking to access equity in their property because they’re about to list their property for sale;
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Somebody who’s looking to enhance their property slightly - perhaps to redecorate , repaint, change carpets or do some mandatory non-structural work; and
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Somebody who’s got an loan with another lender and they’ve reached the end of their loan term and they can’t get an extension or rollover. I think is going to be the biggest segment.
How does the Hyper Bridge product support customers with an expiring private loan?
We can come in and buy them some time, up to six months, to give them a bit of dignity so they don’t have to go through an enforcement process. If they went through the enforcement process with their existing lender, usually there would be nothing left by the time they sell it because of all the accrued default fees and charges and penalties.
But with Hyper Bridge, they can sell on their own terms and access some of the remaining equity (say 10-15 per cent).
With such a high LVR, how are you able to manage the risk?
We do charge a premium for this product. It is a high-risk product; we know that we’re not going to get all our money back on every deal.
How fast is the 'Hyper' part of the Hyper Bridge?
We can settle this sort of deal within three business days. We’ve got commitments with our external valuers to turn valuations around within a day and with our solicitors to turn around loan docs under one business day. So the entire process can be within three days.
What are the key criteria you focus on when assessing a deal?
We really take a personal approach. The way we look at a property is by thinking: Is this a property that I’d buy? We’re looking at the quality of the property and how liquid it is. We are looking at the borrower, what type of person is behind the business, and we’re looking at the exit.
Are there any trends in who is seeking finance at the moment?
We’ve got a variety of customers. Anybody who’s looking to access equity for a business purpose in Australia; that’s our customer.
Right now, we are seeing a lot of developers. Because of rising construction costs, they’re already overcapitalized on their project and they can’t get a top-up on their existing project with their existing lender. So they’re looking to tap into equity in their other properties and use that to complete their projects. That’s a big segment at the moment.
There are also a lot of people who are looking to release equity before they sell their property to get a better outcome at sale. And there are lots of people who are looking to consolidate a few debts and pay out ATO debt and get into a better place. Plus, of course, those who want a bridging loan to access working capital for their business.
How do brokers get started with Equity Access? Do they need to be on panel?
Being that we’re a new lender, we’re not on panels yet. But a lot of aggregator panels let brokers go off panel.
However, if a broker is with an aggregator that doesn’t allow them to go off panel, we still want to provide value and our services to those brokers. So, we have a tick-and-flick model where they can just send us an email with the scenario, an email, and phone number and we’ll do all the work and flick the broker a commission.
What's next for Equity Access?
We want to get an Australian Credit Licence, which we will probably get next year.
We want to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and tech to make the processes easier and quicker for our brokers and customers.
And we already have our eye on a couple other niche products which we want to expand, too!
Tune in to hear more!
Find out more about how Equity Access helps brokers support commercial clients needing to move quickly in the In Focus podcast, The boom in private lending, here:
Click here to listen on your device
