This was a two-staged project for us; we were initially approached by the developer in June 2018, to provide bridging finance to allow the purchase of a former car showroom, with a view to obtaining change of use class permission to Residential, and then obtaining planning permission for 9 apartments on the site. Once planning had been granted we converted our bridging loan into a £2.5m development loan, allowing for the construction of six two-bed duplex apartments spanning the basement and ground floors, and three one-bed apartments on the second floor.
Preparing the site was a massive job, involving the excavation and removal of vast amounts of material in order to create the basement - this was particularly challenging as the site access was narrow and difficult to work with. Despite the challenges, the project has delivered all it promised, with the completion of 9 high-spec, affordable homes, within budget, and the units have been quick to sell.
The development project took about 18 months to completion and repayment came via refinancing into a marketing loan.
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