ASC secures £2.2 million of development finance despite legal complications

Thanks to Steve Bealing from the ASC Surrey office, a Surrey property developer is on the way to undertaking his latest new build development.

Our client, an established property developer, approached Steve to assist with securing the finance for his latest project – a new build development of three luxury homes in Woking, Surrey. He needed to borrow £2.2 million (65% of the gross development value) to fund the land purchase and build cost. Having worked with Steve on several other schemes over the past 10 years, he was confident ASC could make the deal happen.

Within a month, Steve secured loan approval from Close Property Finance, a specialist property development funder. However, the land purchase subsequently threw up several legal complications that threatened to jeopardise the deal. There were two access issues – a private road to the site and a footpath across the site, as well as a concern about getting all the utilities to the site.

Steve liaised extensively with the legal parties – his client’s solicitor, the bank’s solicitor, the vendor’s solicitors, and the estate agent to keep the deal on track. Eventually, the issues were resolved, and the deal was able to progress.

Fortunately, having chosen a specialist lender with solid experience in the property development field, the deal didn’t fall apart. As the bank is a specialist in this area, it was undaunted by the issues and has the support of a robust legal department. Many other development funders would probably have walked away.

Our client is delighted to have secured the finance he needs and plans to have all three new homes built and on the market within 12 months. He commented:

“Steve has been a consummate professional at all times and has been of great value in helping me to acquire funding for any of my development sites. He was especially of great help on my last site, where we were faced with quite a few legal issues.

After these years, I have come to trust and value his opinions, and he is always the first person I go to when looking to secure funding and will continue to do so in the future.”

At ASC, we have extensive experience in property development finance and can assist with ground-up developments as well as conversions, from single properties to multi-unit sites. We are happy to work with experienced developers and new entrants alike.