Octopus Property launches development-light product

The new intermediate development product, for projects with build costs between £0.5 and £1.5 million, is aimed at borrowers requiring finance for residential schemes that sit outside the traditional refurbishment or development lending parameters.

It is targeted at schemes that may require more technical support than a typical refurbishment, but are shorter-term, require less monitoring and are lower down the risk curve than a normal development project.

The product has a fixed rate of 8.0% per annum up to a maximum loan-to-cost of 85% and maximum loan-to-gross-development-value of 70%.

Gavin Eustace, head of development at Octopus Property, commented: “We continue to leverage our market knowledge and relationships to better understand the challenges facing property professionals in accessing development finance, and believe that this product is ideally positioned to fill a gap in the market.
 
“With wider macro uncertainty affecting the sector, smaller developers are increasingly looking at ways to re-position existing properties to realise value or embark on smaller ground-up schemes which require a new type of funding to match the risk profile of the project.”