As part of this, Pollen Street Capital has acquired approximately £30m of Downing's existing loan book, and is providing an additional funding line to co-fund or fully fund future residential development finance and bridging deals for SME developers.

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Parik Chandra, partner and head of property finance at Downing LLP (pictured above), said: "Our partnership with Pollen Street Capital gives us the ability to provide a broader offering and develop a stronger presence in the property finance market. 

"This deal will also allow us to realise our bold plans for supporting SME developers and the great work they do in tackling the UK's housing shortage in 2021 and beyond. 

“As in so many sectors, 2020 has been challenging for the property development market, but this new relationship with Pollen Street Capital — a prominent institutional asset manager, and a significant contributor to this specialist real estate sector — provides a huge vote of confidence in our approach.”

Howard Garland, partner at Pollen Street Capital, commented: "We are delighted to announce this new funding partnership with Downing, which we expect will become one of our key real estate partners going forward. 

“The high-quality focus and market expertise of the Downing property finance team fits well with our real estate strategy, where we look to form funding partnerships with experienced lenders in the sector. 

“We also see a number of broader synergies between our businesses and look forward to working with them."