Octopus Real Estate launches enhanced residential bridging product

By Bridging Loan Directory 6th June 2019

Octopus Real Estate, part of Octopus Group, announces enhancements to its unregulated residential bridging product as part of its continuous commitment to review and improve its borrower and broker offering. It follows a record month of lending which saw Octopus Real Estate complete £101 million, maintaining its best ever start to a calendar year, which has seen it provide more than £357 million of financing across England, Wales and Scotland.

The enhanced product will further improve Octopus Real Estate’s competitiveness in the residential bridging market. The business now caters to a wider range of borrowers, spanning those seeking finance for more complex cases, to best-quality clients with a strong UK credit profile. Key features include:

An increase in the maximum loan to value to 75%, designed to help good quality clients who need higher gearing in order to continually seize new opportunities and grow their portfolio.
Loans between £100,000 – £500,000.
A simple and competitive rate of 0.6% p.m, which stays consistent with lower LTVs.

D’mitri Zaprzala, pictured, Head of Sales at Octopus Real Estate, commented:

“The changes to our unregulated bridging product form part of our strategy to ensure that our range of products is extremely simple and competitive while meeting the needs of a whole spectrum of borrowers. The increased level of gearing available to good quality borrowers reflects our confidence in both the quality of our underwriting team and the outlook for the UK residential real estate market.”

During May, 37 new loans were originated across Octopus Real Estate’s comprehensive suite of residential, commercial and development lending products. Notable deals included:

A £10 million acquisition loan to Strawberry Star Group for a retail-to-residential scheme in Harlow, Essex.
A record £28.4 million refinancing facility for a 106-unit private rented sector scheme in Ilford, London.

Last month also saw the launch of Octopus Real Estate, following the merger of two leading real estate businesses, Octopus Healthcare and Octopus Property. With more than £2 billion of funds under management, the business has been formed to create greater size and scale, affording it the opportunity to expand into new areas of the UK property market.

Commenting on the record month of lending, Benjamin Davis, CEO added:

“Thank you to our brokers and borrowers throughout the UK, whose continued support has enabled the ongoing momentum in our lending activity. With an extremely experienced team and the size and scale of the business, we will continue to look at new ways we can support the evolving demands of the real estate sector, as borrowers seek timely and competitive finance solutions.”