News

Gatehouse Bank crosses £100m Commercial Finance Milestone in 2018

Gatehouse Bank’s rapidly expanding commercial real estate team has closed £100m of finance for the first time this year.

The Bank has reached the milestone just four years after the team was founded and is on track to close more than 15 deals across the year, having considered opportunities worth more than £1billion in total.

The facilities, deployed directly by the bank, ranged from £2million up to £20million across a variety of asset classes.

Highlighted deals include:

  • The funding of large Buy to Let residential portfolios located in East London, and the south coast of England
  • PRS schemes in the South West of England
  • A portfolio financing of offices spread throughout England, Wales and Scotland
  • Student accommodation in the Midlands and Scotland
  • A portfolio of long term and stabilised commercial ground rents throughout England

Sponsorship profiles have varied during 2018 with deals being backed by HNW individuals or family offices through to institutional capital from private equity firms. The equity in funded deals has come from the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Asia in the main.

The team has also been active in establishing relationships with other senior and mezzanine investors to fund larger and higher-levered transactions, with a view to providing whole finance solutions to its clients.

Gatehouse Bank’s commercial real estate finance team has gone through significant growth in the last 18 months. The team is led by Michael Dey, and includes John Jamali, Nisha Raj and Khush Chavda. The Bank plans to further grow the commercial real estate finance book in forthcoming years and believes the sector provides for good risk-adjusted returns given the current macro-economic and political environment.

Gatehouse Bank Chief Commercial Officer, Paul Stockwell, said:

"This is a fantastic milestone for a rapidly growing part of our business. We set out to earn a reputation for a bespoke approach to commercial property finance and we'll be looking to cement that in 2019."