Merryoaks Secures £1.8m Loan for London Apartment Project with £2.5m GDV

Merryoaks Property Finance have secured a £1.8m loan for their client to develop a site in Newbury Park, London.

The funds, provided by CrowdProperty, enabled the developer to refinance a site which had planning approved for 7 x New Build Apartments and acquired post-auction in Q3 2022.

The site, which is within walking distance of Newbury Park Tube Station, had been on the market for over a year and was eventually purchased for over 25% below the initial asking price.

Saam Lowni, Managing Director of Merryoaks, said: “After securing a bridge loan within 4 weeks, the next step was to secure development finance.

The developer was already working on another development project and needed to stretch his equity, so we decided to explore stretch senior and mezzanine options.

The priority was to secure a development loan that would replace the existing 1^st charge lender and provide 100% of the build costs. After exploring numerous solutions, in the end, we secured a senior facility of £1.6m with CrowdProperty and a £260,000 loan facility from Justice Capital.”

The loan provided the client with a 12-month construction period and 6-month sales/refinance period (18-month total). The new build apartments, which are ideal for first time buyers, young professionals or buy to let investors will command a £2,500,000 GDV.

Tom Edmunds, Business Development Manager at CrowdProperty, said: "We are thrilled to get this deal completion with Merryoaks over the line. It's been a pleasure working with them over a number of years and we look forward to supporting many more of their clients in future."

Justice Capitals’ Nathan Appleby added: “Saam from Merryoaks was diligent and thorough in every stage of the process when it came to arranging the deal. The information was fully presented to us in its entirety from the outset, which limited the time it took for us to issue binding terms. Saam was integral in organising discussions and enabling communications between all parties during the preparation of a complex legal arrangement and constantly sought the best outcome for his client. At Justice Capital, we look forward to working with Saam again on arranging mezzanine finance for property developers and enabling projects to get off the ground that would otherwise be unable to commence.”

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