RBS veteran joins LendInvest for development finance launch

Steve joins LendInvest after a 26 year career at RBS where he held a range of senior roles in real estate credit, restructuring and origination. Most recently, Steve spent four years as Head of Residential Development within the restructuring team.

Steve will be responsible for the structure and strategy behind LendInvest’s first official Development Finance offering. Steve will be supported by two new business development managers, to be announced in due course.

LendInvest Development Finance caters for small scale development projects - a market underserved by many lenders since the 2008 crash.

Loans are available to experienced property developers seeking non-regulated finance to build residential or semi-commercial properties in England and Wales. Eligible developers can apply for loans up to 90% of the development cost (LTC), or up to 65% of the gross development value. Loans last up to 24 months.

Christian Faes, Co-Founder and CEO of Lendinvest, said:

“The availability of development funds continues to be low, while demand from property entrepreneurs increases. The high street banks that have returned to development in the years since 2008 have a significantly reduced appetite to lend at the smaller end of the market. For them, the commercially attractive deals happen in the higher-end, larger-volume, bigger-margin space. Steve has a comprehensive understanding of the whole space and is the ideal person to launch and drive our product forward.”

Steve Larkin, Director of Development Finance, said:

“It’s an exciting time to join a fast-growing leader of the alternative lending market. The sub-£10 million development market is where fast-moving bridging specialists have the best chance to achieve scale quickly. Not only does LendInvest already have over eight years’ experience in this space, this is a sector that is ripe for technology transformation.”

Matthew Tooth, Head of Distribution at LendInvest, added:

“With Steve and his team coming on board, we look forward to speaking to more developers and their brokers about prospective projects on an official basis. We are excited too to be able to now make more development finance loans available to our investors who like the fact that loan security increases as the projects move towards completion.”