Medianett recently spent the day on site with challenger bank Aldermore, which has experienced rapid growth in 2014…
In regards of this year’s achievements, the bank’s newly-appointed Head of Property Development Simon Knowles said: “This year has been a major growth year for us, where we have funded as many schemes in the first six months of 2014 as we did in the whole of 2013.”
“I am really pleased to say that many of these are outside of the South East region where there is no shortage of development finance available, but further afield developers are finding it very difficult to get the appropriate funding package in place. Aldermore has now funded developments in Bristol, Manchester, Telford, Cardiff, Norwich, Newcastle and Leeds plus many other areas around the country.”
Simon Knowles, who has had experience in property development finance for the last 15 years, was appointed this February after taking the role on an interim basis for a six-month period, managing a team of 17 covering both England and Wales.
The team has front line Property Development Managers who source and write new business, Client Relationship Managers who manage the clients post drawdown, and a Support Team who take care of all procedural and documentation requirements.
Simon’s responsibility is to ensure the team meets its new business targets whilst maintaining controls over the developments that it is funding. Simon said: “Aside from this, I will also continually review our product offering to maintain Aldermore’s position.”
Out of the many developments Aldermore has funded over the past six months, B&C visited two very different sites in London. The first scheme Simon showed B&C was the penthouse development at Goldney Road, Maida Vale.
In regards of this year’s achievements, the bank’s newly-appointed Head of Property Development Simon Knowles said: “This year has been a major growth year for us, where we have funded as many schemes in the first six months of 2014 as we did in the whole of 2013.”
“I am really pleased to say that many of these are outside of the South East region where there is no shortage of development finance available, but further afield developers are finding it very difficult to get the appropriate funding package in place. Aldermore has now funded developments in Bristol, Manchester, Telford, Cardiff, Norwich, Newcastle and Leeds plus many other areas around the country.”
Simon Knowles, who has had experience in property development finance for the last 15 years, was appointed this February after taking the role on an interim basis for a six-month period, managing a team of 17 covering both England and Wales.
The team has front line Property Development Managers who source and write new business, Client Relationship Managers who manage the clients post drawdown, and a Support Team who take care of all procedural and documentation requirements.
Simon’s responsibility is to ensure the team meets its new business targets whilst maintaining controls over the developments that it is funding. Simon said: “Aside from this, I will also continually review our product offering to maintain Aldermore’s position.”
Out of the many developments Aldermore has funded over the past six months, B&C visited two very different sites in London. The first scheme Simon showed B&C was the penthouse development at Goldney Road, Maida Vale.
The client already owned the building on an investment basis and obtained planning for the three bed penthouse of circa 1,600sqf. The build costs were £500,000 and Aldermore is funding 100 per cent by providing an 18 month facility with rolled-up interest to allow for the build to be completed with an appropriate sales period, in case it is needed. Although, in this case the client intends to retain on an investment basis. Simon revealed that the end value is expected to be around £1.1 million and the development will be completed by the summer of 2015.
The second scheme we were shown was a nine-bed apartment and one retail unit in Ladbroke Grove. Whilst the client already owned the site, he had outstanding debt with a funder who was no longer supportive of development finance.
Aldermore provided £3 million which allowed the client to repay the existing funder in full and then covered 100 per cent of the build costs, plus rolled-up interest for the full 18 month term. The end value was originally anticipated at circa £5 million, but fortunately for both the lender and the developer, the market has moved positively and expectations are now higher. The developer has already agreed sales on five of the residential units, plus the retail unit, with practical completion expected by the end of this year.
Simon said: “There are obvious and well-publicised concerns around the overheating of the market in some areas of London but provided developers and funders show the right level of caution, then there should be minimal impact.
“Around the country there are now many areas beginning to see positive movement in house prices which should and will give confidence in undertaking and supporting developments.”
Simon’s favourite aspect of his role at Aldemore is seeing the developments it is funding coming to fruition. He commented: “Seeing a plot of land become a housing development or a former office building become a residential apartment block and knowing Aldermore has had a major financial input is really satisfying.
“I am lucky in that I get to see, at some point, many of the developments we, as a bank, are supporting, so I see a wide range of schemes and meet a real variety of people all of whom have one thing in common – they are very driven to succeed in the schemes they are undertaking and take great pride in delivering quality homes to the marketplace.”
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