Octopus Property to provide four commercial loans

Specialist property lender Octopus Property will provide four commercial loans totalling £33.7m to borrowers in Birmingham, Derby, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Octopus Property to provide four commercial loans

Specialist property lender Octopus Property will provide four commercial loans totalling £35.2m to borrowers in Birmingham, Derby, Manchester and Edinburgh.

There’s a six-month, £11.3m acquisition loan for a Birmingham office campus with permitted development.

Occupying a four acre site, half the campus has consent for 250 residential units with the remaining 45,000 squarefeet of office space let to HMRC & Environment Agency for a further nine years.

And there’s a 12-month, £8.2m loan for the acquisition of the old Royal Infirmary in Derby. The property comprises a cleared site of 18.5 acres, with outline planning permission for up to 500 residential units.

Ludo Mackenzie, head of commercial property at Octopus Property, said: “As we grow the Octopus Property business it is our intention to substantially increase lending activities beyond our original core markets of London and the South East.

“While we have always been a national lender, we are now regularly seeing high quality opportunities to back talented investors and developers in the regional markets.”

There’s also a 12-month, £5.7m loan to support a repeat borrower’s acquisition of a 135 bed Holiday Inn Express. The hotel is located on a recently developed sports campus between Liverpool and Manchester and will be added to the investor’s portfolio of branded hotels.

And there’s a nine-month, £10m loan for the acquisition of six freehold plots that form part of the Granton Harbour Estate and will become the heart of the new Edinburgh Marina development.

Totallingaround19 acres, planning consent has been granted for a mixed use scheme with residential, hotel and retirement living units surrounding a 340 berth marina.

The underlying fundamentals supporting investment and development in the regional commercial property markets remain favourable, driven by the relatively low interest rate environment, high investment costs in and around the South East and a focus on regional development.

To support its growth ambitions, Octopus Property has continued to add to its regional teams, having made seven new hires since the start of 2018.

Sirius Private Clients acted as broker on the Birmingham transaction,BBS Capital on the Derby transactionandJohn Charcol on the Edinburgh transaction.