Of that total, £197.8m was in the form of bridging finance, highlighting the growing trend for property developers to rely on short-term lending solutions.

The development lending figures exclude ‘light refurbishment’, such as the addition or renovation of bathrooms, kitchens and conservatories as these generally do not require planning permission or extensive structural changes.

The ASTL highlighted that Q4 2017 was a strong period for bridging lenders with a 19.6% increase on the previous quarter and, for the first time, completions exceeded £1bn.

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“The housing crisis continues to be high on the government’s agenda and Sajid Javid highlighted last year that he wanted to do more to support SME building firms,” said Benson Hersch, CEO at the ASTL (pictured above).

“Increasingly these small developers are relying on short-term funding solutions, because traditional forms of finance are often not available to them.    

“Such a trend demonstrates how alternative forms of finance are providing the solutions where the government and the banking industry should be and could be bridging the gap.”