The private client lending team at Investec Real Estate has hailed a rebound in the deals market, having lent more during the past six months than in all its previous financial year.
The company’s lending over the six months to 30 September came to £225m across 25 loans, taking total commitments past £1bn.
That half-year figure means lending has already passed its total for the 2020/2021 financial year and, alongside the corporate lending team, puts Investec on course to meet a full-year lending target of £750m.
The private client business lends from the company’s own balance sheet to high-net-worth individuals and smaller, more entrepreneurial clients than the corporate business, which focuses on bigger-ticket, often syndicated, deals.
William Scoular, head of real estate’s private client team (pictured), said the company had demonstrated an ability to win market share during the challenges of the pandemic.
“We’re at a point in the market where we sit between the debt funds – who will give more gearing than we do but are quite a lot more expensive than us – and the clearing banks who are quite risk-off at the moment,” he told EG.
Most of the private client team’s deals have been investment and development transactions in London and the South East, the largest being a £40m acquisition and refurbishment loan on a prime central London mansion block.
Other H1 deals included funding an 80,000 sq ft M25 office building with permitted development rights potential for residential, and backing the purchase of a UK medical portfolio comprising 35 assets for a consortium of South African clients.
The company now has a further £125m of deals in legal, Scoular said, much of it in the residential market. Last month the company financed its first modular scheme, sealing a £11m loan to Stelling Properties Group for a 99-studio student accommodation project in Guildford.
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