Client success story

Masthaven

Founded in 2005, Masthaven is a UK specialist property finance lender providing residential and buy-to-let mortgages, second charge secured loans, bridging finance and development finance through intermediary partners. Focused on borrowers with more complex lending requirements, the business combines flexible underwriting with a relationship-led approach, delivering tailored property finance solutions backed by deep expertise.

About Masthaven

Established: 2005
Industry: Specialist property finance
Products: ADP

The Challenge: Helping Brokers Get Applications Right First Time

Before partnering with LendingMetrics, Masthaven's brokers manually interpreted lending criteria using paper-based credit matrices to determine whether an application met the lender's requirements. This often resulted in applications being submitted outside Masthaven’s affordability model or credit appetite, leaving their underwriters to manually repeat checks and, in some cases, correct product selection. Rather than focusing on customer risk, their teams were spending valuable time reviewing applications that should never have progressed. To combat this, they wanted to introduce greater control and consistency into the application journey, creating a scalable decisioning process that would support future growth.

The Solution: Removing Manual Interpretation from Lending Criteria

Masthaven implemented LendingMetrics' Decisioning Solution to remove the manual interpretation of their lending criteria from the application journey. Rather than relying on brokers to assess affordability and credit requirements using paper-based matrices, the decision engine applies Masthaven's lending policy consistently before the application progresses. This gives brokers greater confidence that the applications they submit align with Masthaven's criteria, while allowing underwriters to focus their expertise on assessing customer risk rather than repeating manual checks.

Building the decision engine also encouraged Masthaven to challenge their own lending criteria. As rules were configured, the team identified areas of unnecessary complexity that could be simplified without compromising their risk appetite. This process not only strengthened the application journey but also created a clearer, more maintainable lending framework that can evolve alongside the business as new products and markets are introduced.

The Results: Early Gains Across the Lending Journey

Post implementation, results show Masthaven are already seeing positive operational improvements across their lending process. By giving brokers greater certainty at the point of application and reducing unnecessary manual intervention, they have created a stronger foundation for future growth.

Early outcomes include:

• An increase in same-day offers and completions. 

• Reduced application-to-offer turnaround times. 

• Improved underwriter productivity. 

• Greater consistency across lending decisions. 

• Positive feedback from brokers and a reduction in declined applications. 

With a scalable automated decisioning framework now in place, Masthaven are well positioned to expand into new lending markets, including first charge residential and buy-to-let mortgages, while continuing to evolve their lending policy as the business grows.