- OakNorth is providing
Hilltop Credit Partners, the specialist funding partner for small and mid-sized
UK residential property developers and housebuilders, with its first debt
finance facility to support its recently launched real estate lending vehicle.
- Backed by Round
Hill Capital and with over 25 years’ experience, Hilltop’s management team, who
advise the vehicle, are experts in dealing with market risk and working through
changing credit cycles.
- After an extensive search, Hilltop chose to partner with OakNorth, appreciating
its speed, structure and knowledge within this sector.
OakNorth – the bank for
entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs – has completed its first finance
deal with
Hilltop Credit Partners, a specialist funding partner for small and
mid-sized residential property developers and housebuilders.
The £30m loan-on-loan facility will be used to support
the recently launched real estate development lending platform, led by Paul
Oberschneider, who has more than 25 years of experience in property development
and asset management. Backed
by
Round Hill Capital, a leading global real estate investment firm
with a focus on macro-driven residential real estate
investment strategies, Hilltop
Credit Partners aims to help developers who know their local markets but need
access to tailored financing solutions in order to fund their projects. Over
the past three decades, Hilltop’s experienced management team, which is made up
of former developers, have successfully originated and managed value-add and
opportunistic residential deals through several market cycles.
Mohith Sondhi,
Debt Finance Director at OakNorth, added: “Our deep knowledge of the sector and ability
to provide an attractive financing package tailored to Hilltop’s requirements, helped
us to distinguish ourselves throughout the competitive process. We look forward
to building further on our partnership with Hilltop Credit Partners, which was founded and is run by developers with
more than 25 years’ experience working through market cycles. Combined with
Round Hill Capital’s commitment and expertise in this space, Hilltop understands
what it’s like to be in the developer’s shoes and how important it is to react
to the inevitable market changes that can occur during a project.”
Tiger Craft, Partner & CFO of Hilltop
Credit Partners, said: “For SME developers, securing funding has been
needlessly frustrating, time-consuming and expensive for far too long and as a
result, they now build only 10 percent of the UK’s housing stock. Our entire
process is focused on helping developers move quickly, so they can secure
sites, build homes and sell them in a fast, cost-efficient manner. We are
delighted to be partnering with
OakNorth on this loan facility; like us, they
have a demonstrable understanding of the needs of fund investors, and with
property comprising a significant portion of their own lending portfolio, they have
a deep understanding of the underlying asset class. This sets OakNorth apart
from many of the other lenders.”