Close Brothers Property Finance announces two key senior hires

By Bridging Loan Directory 27th March 2025

Close Brothers Property Finance (CBPF) has announced the appointment of two senior strategic hires.

Manu Dinamani as Director in the new Structured Finance team in London and Iain Melville, Senior Business Development Manager, who will add to the team focussed on lending across Yorkshire and Northern England.

Close Brothers Property Finance, which is celebrating 50 years of property lending this year, and a loan book standing at just under £2 billion.

The key appointments strengthen the lender’s proposition as it expands into new sectors of the market and diversifies further into Yorkshire and Northern England, from existing locations of London, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Manu Dinamani has two decades of experience in property finance, specialising in Build to Rent, PBSA and Co-living sectors.

Manu joins Close Brothers Property Finance from investment manager Downing where he was Investment Director.

Prior to that he held roles at leading build to rent developer Watkin Jones, Crosslane Co-living and Phoenix London and Regional Ltd.

He specialises in structuring complex transactions, capital raising and sourcing and underwriting development opportunities. Manu joins Chiara Caldwell, who was appointed as Managing Director for Structured Finance in January 2025.

Iain Melville brings 15 years of experience in property finance beginning his career with Close Brothers Property Finance in Edinburgh in 2010 before joining NatWest’s Corporate Real Estate team in Leeds in 2015, in the role of Relationship Director.

In 2020 Iain joined Yorkshire-based sustainable developer Citu, where he was responsible for sourcing and structuring development/investment finance from both public and private sources as Group Funding Manager.

Iain will be responsible for growing Close Brothers Property Finance’s loan book across Yorkshire and Northern England.

Phil Hooper, Chief Executive Officer of Close Brothers Property Finance, says:

“Manu and Iain’s wealth of industry experience will be hugely instrumental in driving our growth, both geographically as we expand further into Northern England as well as laterally, as we increase our presence in the dynamic build to rent and PBSA sectors.”

Manu Dinamani says:

“Build to Rent is at an exciting juncture. I’m looking forward to working alongside Chiara and the wider team to grow Close Brothers Property Finance’s position in this fast-paced and evolving market, supporting the delivery of high-quality rental homes.”

Iain Melville says:

“Close Brothers Property Finance has a reputation in the industry for its relationship-centric approach to lending.

Providing SME housebuilders in Yorkshire and the North of England with tailored financing solutions will be key to supporting them in delivering much-needed new homes in the region.”