Potential challenges that occur within the banks credit assessment of property companies

Abstract: Our study highlights the potential challenges that occur within the banks credit assessment of property companies’ repayment ability and what improvements can be implemented to reduce the weaknesses of the credit process. The study aims to provide a greater understanding of how the credit assessment process works within a bank and to pay attention to where potential weaknesses in the system are located. The study is based on theoretical and empirical data. The theoretical part of the study is based upon evidence from literary and scientifical sources, while the empirical data consists of interviews from professional experts and of a researcher within the banking and property sector. The credit culture in the banking system has changed in recent decades as a result of previous real estate and financial crises. Banks have become more restrictive with their credit lending and they have begun to move towards a more classical view of banking. When banks perform a credit assessment they look at both the evaluation flow and the cash flow and it is the cash flow that displays the companies’ repayment ability. Banks uses tools such as stencils and models to assess companies’ cash flow and they do it to try and predict how the companies future capital will look like and how it will develop. It is within the banks prediction of the future of the companies cash flow that you can find the most uncertainties. This is especially true when it comes to credit lending to property companies and the reason is the major risk that banks take within this type of credit granting. The risks are linked to the large loan amount that property companies need to make their business work and also to the long time period that is expected when it comes to large credit granting from banks. There are also some concerns about the assessment of future corporate profits because it is related to a lot of different factors such as the time period of the existing leases within a residential property, the level of the current rent and fear of future vacancies. As a bank, there is often a security in the property when granting loans to property companies and problems can occur when the actual property is of a unique type of real estate. It could lead to difficulties for the bank when they try to estimate the value of the property or when banks need to find a possible buyer. There are also some problems for the banks when it comes to the geographical location of the property because of the connection that prices have to the location of the property. The difficulties when it comes to the assessment of the property companies’ cash flow are many but the banks have an optimistic view on the credit assessment system as it is today.