Online specialist property finance lender LendInvest has temporarily paused lending on new second charge cases following the UK’s decision to exit the European Union.

LendInvest fully expects to honour its existing pipeline of deals (including second charge cases), and no cases have been cancelled or dropped on account of the Brexit vote.

Ian Thomas (pictured), co-founder and director of LendInvest, said: “At times of uncertainty, communication is crucial, no more so between lenders and brokers who want to work hard for their customers. Our message today is that LendInvest remains very much open for business.

“Our decision to tighten lending criteria for higher value cases and pause new second charge loans reflects industry caution after the market shock of last week. Until more data becomes available about prime sales in the new market environment, redefining our lending criteria is the most responsible and prudent course of action.

“LendInvest will carry on lending and we expect to remain busy in the months to come. This is the sort of major event that we have built LendInvest to be able to withstand. We are very well-capitalised and have a well-diversified funding base, from which to continue to lend and service loans.”

Additionally LendInvest confirmed that it will continue to lend on open market valuations and it has not changed published interest rates.

Lending criteria remains unchanged for deals worth less than £3m with an LTV of 75% or less but has tightened for deals worth more than £3m, where the LTV is now capped at 65%.