Cameron Stephens Mortgage Capital has launched an Accelerated Lending Program to provide an under 15-day commitment process for single advance inventory, term, bridge and land loans of up to $15 million.

The program “came out of the notion that things are taking forever and it’s difficult to get any certainty from many lenders right now,” says Steve Cameron, president and COO of Cameron Stephens. “We thought if we put this program together, hopefully it would provide a service that other lenders weren’t providing right now,” namely a path to a quick closing.

To provide the funds, 21-year-old Cameron Stephens is tapping into up to $500 million in discretionary capital from its mortgage funds, including the Cameron Stephens Mortgage Trust, Bay Street High Yield Fund, and Western Canada High Yield Fund. 

Using its internal funds helps eliminate layers of approval and red tape and significantly reduces time to close, the company says. 

“We thought that having a program that would allow us to deploy our private capital and give our borrowers that quick turnaround time was something that would be appreciated,” says Katie Bonar, senior vice-president, investment management at Cameron Stephens.

'Big aspirations' for Accelerated Lending Program

Bonar says Cameron Stephens has “pretty big aspirations” for the program. “My target personally for this year alone is to do $100 million in commitments.” She sees that number doubling over the next year to 18 months “because there’s been such big uptake.”

Bonar notes that many CRE lenders “are nervous and there’s a lot of delays and approvals or additional conditions being added on.” Being able to say to clients that if they meet certain terms, “we’re going to fund your deal and we’re going to fund it very quickly; it’s been very powerful.”

The loans are available only in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., the provinces in which Cameron Stephens is licensed. It's offices are in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

However, the company is working toward becoming a CMHC-approved lender, “something that would open up some additional provinces to us,” Bonar says.

She says Cameron Stephens has an investment committee that is actively involved in real estate development and property management in the three provinces in which it operates.

“We’re really plugged into the market and we’re getting real-time assessments of land values and purchase prices.” 

Appeal for wide range of financings

The new product will be of interest to commercial real estate property owners, managers and developers who need to, among other things, reposition or need a quick close or to bridge to a term, Cameron says.

“The key here for us is that we can underwrite it quickly, and that we can advance in one funding.”

The certainty, speed and flexibility provided by the program “is worth a couple extra basis points from our clients’ perspective,” Cameron says.

Banks have always been the lowest-priced lending option, “but getting a real timetable out of them has always been difficult,” he says. They have multiple levels of internal credit, “a bureaucratic process that sometimes slows things down.” 

With certain large and complex transactions, “it’s like banging your head against the wall sometimes.”

Cameron Stephens busy with construction loans

Outside of the Accelerated Lending Program, Cameron Stephens has done a significant amount of construction loans with multiple advances, predominantly for low-rise, midrise and highrise residential. It also does construction loans for industrial development, self-storage, hospitality and long-term care, Cameron says.

Due to a slowdown in construction – namely due to a collapse in the condo presale market – there are fewer big loans in the industry, he notes.

Not only are there fewer deals but “really good deals get taken off the market by the banks.” That leaves fewer opportunities for secondary lenders and increases competition for those that remain.

In addition, many lenders “got themselves in a little bit of trouble over the last two years and are probably a little bit distracted.” 

If you have money collection problems or have a lot of your loans in default “you’re probably not writing a lot of new business.”

While deals are getting struck, “there’s a lot of shifting and renegotiating at the 11th hour," Cameron says.

“Things are just taking a lot longer on the bigger, more complicated deals and that’s one of the reasons we wanted to do this program. We connect quickly, there’s less headache (and) we don’t have to deal with any institutional capital. It’s all our money.”