FRP Real Estate Advisory has arranged almost £1.5 million of specialist finance across three transactions, supporting experienced property investors as they expand into development projects.
The three facilities, completed over recent weeks, included land bridging, a secured revolving credit facility and development-linked bridging finance, with completion times ranging from two to three-and-a-half weeks.
Each transaction involved circumstances that fell outside the appetite of many mainstream lenders, including lending against a purchase price, funding refurbishment works without formal oversight and releasing equity through a second-charge facility.
The deals were led by Sam Beaumont, finance adviser at FRP Real Estate Advisory, who said the borrowers shared a common objective of moving from property investment into development.
One transaction saw FRP arrange a £163,911 land bridge at 40% loan-to-value over 12 months against a vacant industrial unit. The funding released capital ahead of a development loan and completed in three-and-a-half weeks after the lender agreed to lend against the purchase price without requiring a formal valuation.
A second deal involved a £967,000 second-charge revolving credit facility secured against the borrower’s main residence. The 24-month facility, at 71% loan-to-value, provided an ongoing drawdown facility by raising a further 40% on top of existing borrowing of around 30% loan-to-value.
The third transaction was a £357,500 bridging loan at 65% loan-to-value over 12 months, secured against a vacant industrial unit in Wales. The finance funded around £120,000 of works and completed within two weeks without the need for a debenture.
Beaumont (pictured) says: “Investors are increasingly behaving like developers, and the finance has to keep up.
“In each of these cases the client had a clear plan, but an asset or a timeline that did not fit a high street template.
“Our job was to find lenders who could look past the standard checklist and move at the pace the opportunity demanded.
“Whether that meant lending on purchase price, releasing equity from a home or funding works without heavy oversight, the principle was the same: back the borrower’s strategy and take the friction out.”
