Specialist property finance lender, Lendhub, has announced that it has completed a £1.22 million development finance facility for the construction of two four-bedroom semi-detached houses in the London Borough of Havering.
The 18-month facility funds a ground-up scheme on unencumbered land owned by the borrower, with full planning permission in place and a projected GDV of £1.75 million. The deal was introduced by Nigel Hakkak of Cobalt Financial.
The facility was structured at 13% LTV against the £195,000 market value of the land on day one, and 70% LTGDV against the scheme's gross development value, with rolled interest across an 18-month term comprising 12 months of construction and six months for sale or refinance.
The borrower owns the land outright, which provided a substantial equity buffer and shaped the credit structure of the facility. Full planning consent for the scheme was granted in June 2025, and three personal guarantees are in place.
The scheme will be delivered on a self-build basis through REA Construction Ltd, an associated contractor under common ownership. The valuation was undertaken by Edward Scott of London's Surveyors & Valuers, with IESIS Consult acting as monitoring surveyor.
The deal sits at the well-capitalised end of Lendhub's development pipeline. With unencumbered land providing the security base, full planning already in place, and a strong personal guarantee covenant, the credit case rested on the deliverability of the build and the clarity of the exit rather than on stretched leverage.
Lendhub structured the facility to fund 100% of construction costs against the land equity, with drawdowns calibrated to the build programme and monitoring conditions standard for a development of this size.
Jack Hoad, relationship associate at Lendhub, said the structure reflected the strength of what the borrower brought to the deal. "Development cases tend to be discussed in terms of leverage ratios, but the structure here was driven by what the borrower brought to the table," he said.
"A clean planning consent, owned land, and a credible PG covenant give a credit team a lot to work with, and the facility was sized to fund the build rather than to stretch the day-one position. That's a structure that works for the borrower, the contractor, and the exit lender."
Nigel Hakkak of Cobalt Financial, who introduced the deal, said the case demanded a lender willing to move quickly on the fundamentals already in place. "The client had everything in place: land, planning, contractor, and the equity, and needed a lender who could move on the build funding without re-litigating the underlying case," he said.
"Lendhub engaged with the structure on its own terms and delivered the facility the client needed to start on site."
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