Housebuilders must diversify their debt from the biggest five banks or risk shutting off access to vital capital, an analyst at KPMG has warned.
More than 80% of the listed housebuilders’ £10bn of debt is held by just five banks: RBS, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander, and no other industry has this level of concentration.
John Miesner, a debt advisory director at KPMG, said: “When bank appetite wobbles, the whole sector will suffer, and the lack of credible alternative sources of debt could become an issue if the banks that are lending conclude that they have more than enough exposure to the UK housebuilding market.”
