OakNorth Bank completes £930k CBILS loan to support the sale of residential barn conversions in Surrey

By Bridging Loan Directory 9th October 2020

OakNorth Bank – the UK bank powered by OakNorth – has completed a £930k CBILS loan to Real Estate Bonding Limited to refinance existing debt and support the sale of two semi-detached barn conversions in Surrey.

The property development business was founded in 2014 by brothers, Nigel and Simon Heilpern, who have over 30 years of real estate experience between them.

Nigel specialises in real estate law and financing, and has represented developers, bankers and other institutions in a range of real estate transactions.

Meanwhile, Simon is the Head of Real Estate at Salamanca Group, where he provides strategic investment and development advice for a wide range of clients on acquisitions, asset management and technical services across the UK.

OakNorth Bank has approved over £1bn in new loans since 23 March, including c.£375m through the British Business Bank’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

Following the extension of the schemes last month, OakNorth Bank has been granted further allocation, so will be able to support even more businesses in the weeks and months ahead.

Commenting on the transaction, Nigel Heilpern, co-founder of Real Estate Bonding Limited, said:

“This deal was completed just three weeks after we’d accepted the terms, which is a clear demonstration of the speed at which the OakNorth team operates and their commitment to delivering an exceptional experience for borrowers.

These are beautiful properties in a unique rural surrounding, which benefit from good transport links into central London, so we’re delighted to have this extra time now to find owners for these new homes.”

Martin Williams, Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth Bank, added:

“Simon and Nigel have over three decades of real estate experience between them, but challenging market conditions due to COVID-19 means they need more time to sell the properties.

We were delighted to support them and complete the transaction in the time frame they required.

We’re grateful to the British Business Bank for granting us additional CBILS and CLBILS allocation, as this means we’ll be able to help more support more strong British entrepreneurs like Nigel and Simon.”