‘Each deal presents unique challenges, keeping us sharp and engaged’

By Tony Sanchez 27th June 2025

In our latest Five Minute Interview, Tony Sanchez speaks to Renzo Vigliotti, Chief Lending Officer at Acre Lane Capital.

Renzo is the Chief Lending Officer at Acre Lane Capital, a fast and flexible short-term lender focused on delivering bespoke solutions across residential development and bridging finance.

With a hands-on approach and deep market knowledge, he plays a key role in structuring deals that meet the needs of brokers and borrowers alike.

What is the best thing about being in the bridging and development finance business?

The industry is fast-paced and highly rewarding, offering the chance to fund real, tangible property projects that drive economic growth and developers businesses.

Every deal is unique, requiring creative, bespoke solutions and close collaboration with brokers and developers. This really highlights the sector’s entrepreneurial nature.

It’s a dynamic industry where your work makes a visible, lasting impact on the infrastructure of the country and the lives of our clients.

What keeps you focused?

What keeps us focused in the bridging and development finance industry is the drive to deliver fast, effective solutions that make a real difference to our clients’ projects.

Each deal presents unique challenges, keeping us sharp and engaged, while the visible impact of our work provides a strong sense of purpose.

We’re also driven by a clear duty of care to our investors, ensuring their capital is deployed ethically with precision and integrity.

In a sector where timing and trust are everything, this balance of client outcomes and investor stewardship keeps us grounded and motivated.

What qualities do you look for in your employees or colleagues?

We look for people who are driven, commercially sharp, and unafraid to take ownership.

This is a fast-moving, solutions-led business, so we value team members who are resourceful, resilient, and always thinking a step ahead.

Integrity and accountability are non-negotiable, our duty to both our borrowers and investors demands it.

Personally, I value those problem solvers who are curious, collaborative, and bring positive energy into the room whilst being able to also deal with high pressure situations that require quick thinking, people who care about the detail but never lose sight of the bigger picture.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

I would consider myself an optimist; however, I think the better question in our industry is: Are you risk-averse or not?

Bridging and development finance demands clear-eyed decision-making, you need to see the opportunity, but also be laser-focused on the risk.

It’s not about blind optimism or cautious pessimism as this is more “emotional lending”.

In my opinion, it’s about being commercially confident, diligent, and decisive. You have to understand the risks at play and have to back your judgement, but always with the discipline and structure that protects both the deal and the capital behind it.

What did you want to be as a child?

For some reason, a gynaecologist. Don’t ask.

What will be the greatest challenge facing the bridging and development finance industry in the coming months?

With things like gilt rates as high as they are (circa 4.5%) coupled with a few other economic variables and global uncertainty, I am seeing the volatility of house prices and build costs creating issues.

Deals that “stack” are becoming a lot less prevalent. We are only now seeing decreases in values of residential properties being reflected in valuations due to the recent “historic” sold data only now being available, reflecting the decreases, which is translating into a reduction in Red Book Valuations.

Although build costs have somewhat stabilised this year, it won’t take much to affect them again, especially with physical and trade wars currently on going.