Octopus Real Estate promotes Herod to head of credit

In her new role, Herod will be responsible for a team of underwriters, to oversee the assessment of a variety of development transactions across various sectors including the residential sector, care homes, retirement and purpose built student accommodation.

Overall, the development lending team is 13 strong and headed up by Andy Scott, with Nick White the head of origination, Nora Rebole as the head of development portfolio with Herod now head of credit.

Herod has a depth of experience in the industry and prior to her promotion, she was a senior credit manager for two years.

Before she joined the Octopus team, Herod spent 16 years at Lloyds Bank, where she held roles within the corporate and institutional debt team, the Business Support Unit, and relationship management teams across the banking group’s real estate and trading businesses.

One example of a recent loan provided by the development lending team is the £37 million loan to Sheen Lane to finance the redevelopment of a vacant office block into flats.

Helping to deliver sustainable property lending

Herod said: “I’m really excited to be leading the credit team going forward and continuing to expand our development lending offering to help deliver much-needed sustainable properties across the UK.”

While Andy Scott, the head of development lending of Octopus Real Estate, added: “Sam is a huge asset to Octopus and I’m very pleased that she is now heading up our credit team.

“She has fantastic property lending experience and has a growth mindset that is focused on delivering great outcomes for our developers and introducers, through innovative and bespoke lending solutions across the living sectors.”