By It is a line-up of supercars that wouldn’t look out of place in front of a Premier League footballer’s mansion.
An impressive lineup of cars outside the facility in Milton Keynes. Image- ©APC But this range of stylish motors worth more than £2million are not showcased for all to see. They are being kept in a nondescript storage facility in Milton Keynes and are symptomatic of the straitened times we live in. This is because they have been pawned for cash.
"People aren’t even bothering to go to banks anymore as they don’t believe they will be lent any money," said Paul Aitken, chief executive of Borro.com, who added that the rise in high value cars being pawned was in part down to the financial constraints being felt even among the wealthy. As well as cars the company also holds fine art, jewellery and antiques.
Image- ©APC."These sort of times give way for alternative means of lending. A lot of our customers are small business owners or self employed, 60% of the time they do this to get some liquidity for an opportunity. The other 40% of the time it is people who are more at the distressed side of things, paying for school fees or a tax bill.
"Often the people who have these types of high performance cars will have another, so use one as security for a loan," he added. "We have seen a big increase in our car lending in the last year. Over the last three years we have lent around £6m against these sort of vehicles and it is only something that it is rising as things become more stretched."
Among the current supply of cars in storage are some of the pricier models on the market, as well as those you wouldn’t find in any old showroom. If the Maserati wasn’t impressive enough, Borro also hold a Porsche Cayenne, a Ferrari F430, an Audi R8 and a Ferrari 360.
The firm is also storing a Bentley Continental GTC and a Rolls-Royce Ghost, the former would set you back just under £137,000 bought new.
Image- ©APC.But it is not only in order to free up cash that customers pawn their luxury motors.
"There are a variety of reasons why these cars have gone into storage; some people have two vehicles, a winter car and a summer car," Mr Aitken told Yahoo! Cars. "Others have parking restrictions or excessive parking costs.
"We have one customer who has a 30-year-old car which we have held for three years in storage which is appreciating in value. He wants to keep hold of it because it is now a classic car and it is actually cheaper to service the loan than pay for parking near his house in Mayfair.
"In the past week alone we have had two individuals who are borrowing £100,000 against diamond jewellery. When you see that these figures are coming up and that loans of £5,000 to £20,000 are also rising you see that we are becoming an increasingly mainstream lender."
