Silbury Finance passes £500m lending milestone two years after launch

The Oaktree Capital Management-backed development lender launched in January 2021 and has since deployed £554m to retirement living and build-to-sell developments. The projects have a gross asset value which exceeds £800m and 47 per cent has been lent to the retirement living sector, while the build-to-sell market has accounted for 53 per cent of finance. 

This has been spread across 11 borrowers and 15 loans.

Some £220m of the finance lent has been to schemes with sustainable values. 

The most recent transaction was to support a £64.3m joint venture between Octopus Real Estate and Pension Insurance Corporation to acquire and develop a 124-residence luxury retirement scheme in St Albans. 

Gavin Eustace, founding partner at Silbury Finance, said: “Silbury was launched in direct response to the paucity of highly experienced, well-funded and sustainability-focused lenders in the mid-ticket residential development space.

“Exacerbated by the retrenchment from the sector caused by the Covid pandemic, we have witnessed unprecedented and increasing enquiry levels from a range of borrowers, from global institutions through to dynamic regional SMEs, for our bespoke capital solutions.

“We retain a high conviction in the structurally undersupplied living sector, which continues to demonstrate attractive countercyclical characteristics and is underpinned by highly favourable demographic and societal drivers.  

“Backed by a deeply experienced global real estate investor in Oaktree, and with further market dislocation likely as result of the challenging economic backdrop, we have ambitions to accelerate our deployment in 2024. Whilst remaining highly disciplined in our underwriting, we have a strong pipeline of borrowers seeking flexible funding solutions for high quality and environmentally responsible schemes.”