The history of ‘Bridging Loans’ is an interesting journey. Once mainly the preserve of our High Street banks, for the good reason that they knew their developer customers often already had some land as security and could act quickly.
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I received a call from a really good bank manager contact of ours last week. They had progressed an application for a loan from a business and had given it an ‘Agreement in Principle’ backed by the enthusiasm of the banker to do the deal, which involved the purchase of a business premises
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We sometimes see cases where a developer is buying land from a landowner on the basis that the seller will be paid an initial price and then a share of the profits over a certain figure – known as an ‘Overage’. Sometimes these contractual deals can create problems later as, much like anything else involved
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It’s always interesting to read in the property news how a property rental deal has been hailed as a success when a commercial property has been let on a gross yield that doesn’t, on the face of it, provide a great return. The latest Savills quarterly review has shown for example that some prime yields
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Good news that the Housing and Planning Minister, Brandon Lewis, has announced the extension of the PDR relating to converting office buildings into residential. This will help those developers who have effectively had projects on hold as the previous scheme needed developments to be completed and occupied by May 2016. Whilst that may have been
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We have a couple of cases where developers have found delays in the purchase of Office (B1a) accommodation with a view to conversion to C3 Residential are now putting developments at risk. Under the slightly controversial PDR introduced in 2013, developments can go ahead as long as the property is ‘is use’ by May 2016. For some
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Extending downwards is a popular tactic with high value properties and we regular read about the opposition to such schemes, not least because of the disruption that they cause. An increasing issue however is how they can impact on the future development rights of neighbours. This particularly applies to those designs which do not use
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Experienced property developers know their business and the pitfalls and are good at managing risks – so the ultra-cautious response of many lenders to requests for funding causes frustration. Many forms of property finance have returned to something near normal over the last year or so, but lenders are still reluctant players in the development market. The reason is that
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