OakNorth completes £30m loan-on-loan facility with Hilltop Credit Partners

By Bridging Loan Directory 16th May 2019

OakNorth – the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs – has completed its first finance deal with Hilltop Credit Partners, a specialist funding partner for small and mid-sized residential property developers and housebuilders.

The £30m loan-on-loan facility will be used to support the recently launched real estate development lending platform, led by Paul Oberschneider, who has more than 25 years of experience in property development and asset management. Backed by Round Hill Capital, a leading global real estate investment firm with a focus on macro-driven residential real estate investment strategies, Hilltop Credit Partners aims to help developers who know their local markets but need access to tailored financing solutions in order to fund their projects. Over the past three decades, Hilltop’s experienced management team, which is made up of former developers, have successfully originated and managed value-add and opportunistic residential deals through several market cycles.

Mohith Sondhi, Debt Finance Director at OakNorth, added:

“Our deep knowledge of the sector and ability to provide an attractive financing package tailored to Hilltop’s requirements, helped us to distinguish ourselves throughout the competitive process. We look forward to building further on our partnership with Hilltop Credit Partners, which was founded and is run by developers with more than 25 years’ experience working through market cycles. Combined with Round Hill Capital’s commitment and expertise in this space, Hilltop understands what it’s like to be in the developer’s shoes and how important it is to react to the inevitable market changes that can occur during a project.”

Tiger Craft, Partner & CFO of Hilltop Credit Partners, said:

“For SME developers, securing funding has been needlessly frustrating, time-consuming and expensive for far too long and as a result, they now build only 10 percent of the UK’s housing stock. Our entire process is focused on helping developers move quickly, so they can secure sites, build homes and sell them in a fast, cost-efficient manner. We are delighted to be partnering with OakNorth on this loan facility; like us, they have a demonstrable understanding of the needs of fund investors, and with property comprising a significant portion of their own lending portfolio, they have a deep understanding of the underlying asset class. This sets OakNorth apart from many of the other lenders.”