Bank of London and the Middle East has completed a further two development funding deals, taking its UK real estate portfolio to more than £200m.
In the largest deal the bank provided a financing facility of £16m to Audley, a specialist provider and manager of luxury retirement villages across the UK.
The loan will be used for a healthcare development in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
It also provided refinancing of just under £8m for Retirement Security, a provider of sheltered housing.
BLME’s head of corporate banking, Jervis Rhodes, said the bank was ideally positioned to exploit the funding gap in the under-funded residential and healthcare market ,where mid-cap developers are struggling to secure refinancing or development finance.
Alice Myers, BLME’s head of property finance, said: “We are believe the residential property market will remain underfinanced over the next 12 months, with many of the smaller property developers looking for new sources of finance or refinance as some of the traditional property financiers reduce their exposure.
“As such we will continue to see a significant number of opportunities to finance or refinance high-quality developments in the residential and commercial property market.”
In 2012 BLME has also completed several other residential deals including the provision of £13m of financing to Aitch Group for a residential development in Shoreditch that will involve converting an office building into 86 high-end apartments.
BLME also provided £11.5m to finance a residential development in Guildford, Surrey for Latchmere Properties; £5.75 to Lagan Homes, for a development in Biddenham, Bedfordshire; and £3.5m to Acorn Development for the Crantock Bay development in St Ives, Cornwall.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
