FRP secures £1.5m in lending for investors outside mainstream criteria

FRP Real Estate Advisory, the property finance arm of FRP, has completed three financing facilities totalling close to £1.5m, each helping an established property investor take their next step into development. 

Completed in recent weeks, the deals span land bridging, a secured revolving credit facility and development-linked bridging finance.

The transactions ranged from a land bridge against a vacant industrial unit to a second-charge revolving credit facility secured against a borrower's own home, with completion times of two to three and a half weeks.

In each case, the asset or timeline sat outside what a mainstream lender would typically support, from lending on purchase price to funding works without the need for formal oversight.

Sam Beaumont, finance advisor at FRP Real Estate Advisory, led all three cases. Across each transaction, the borrowers were established investors moving into development, a shift that is becoming more common but one that doesn't always fit neatly within conventional lending criteria.

The deals at a glance:

• A land bridge against a vacant industrial unit, releasing cash ahead of a development loan: £163,911 at 40% LTV over 12 months, completed in three and a half weeks by lending on purchase price with no formal valuation
• A second-charge revolving credit facility against the borrower's primary residence, raising a further 40% on top of existing borrowing of around 30% LTV: £967,000 at 71% LTV over 24 months, giving the client an ongoing, flexible drawdown line
• A bridge against a vacant industrial unit in Wales, funding circa £120,000 of works: £357,500 at 65% LTV over 12 months, completed in two weeks with no debenture required

"Investors are increasingly behaving like developers, and the finance has to keep up," said Beaumont. 

"In each of these cases, the client had a clear plan, but an asset or a timeline that did not fit a high street template. Our job was to find lenders who could look past the standard checklist and move at the pace the opportunity demanded. 

"Whether that meant lending on purchase price, releasing equity from a home or funding works without heavy oversight, the principle was the same: back the borrower's strategy and take the friction out."