CapitalRise closes nearly £50m of loans in record-breaking July
Leading prime property finance firm CapitalRise is celebrating a record-breaking July, after it originated loans valued at £49.4m in the span of just one month. The facilities take the firm over a major milestone of £400m in cumulative origination and paint an optimistic picture for the year ahead.
The range of projects that CapitalRise financed in July illustrates the increasing geographical diversification of its loan book, as the firm expands beyond Prime Central London – for which it is particularly known – and into the wider South East. While nearly 45% of July’s loans were for projects in prime central London locations – including Mayfair, Bloomsbury, and two in Chelsea – a third of the loans were in prime outer London areas such as Wimbledon, where the firm closed an £8.2m senior development loan. Nearly a quarter of the loans closed in July were in sought-after Home Counties locations, such as Ascot, where the firm is financing a 14,600 sq.ft. luxury new-build house. For CapitalRise, the Home Counties represent the fastest-growing part of its loan book.
The string of newly completed loans contributed towards CapitalRise’s live loan book growth, with the firm reporting a 32% annual increase. This growth was achieved despite a testing macroeconomic environment over the last 12 months that has presented challenges for many property developers, including build cost inflation and increased financing costs due to rising interest rates.
However, CapitalRise’s recent strong performance appears to reflect a change in the tide and a new wave of optimism for the market more widely. Its record number of loan completions in July signals even higher demand for development finance in the coming year.
CapitalRise is prepared for the anticipated increase in demand with a number of new funding lines, which have grown its institutional funding capacity by 290% in the year to July 2024. The growth in lending firepower was enhanced by several new high-value funding lines, including a £250 million facility secured in January – the largest in the firm’s history to date – a further 50% expansion of an existing funding line in March and, more recently, a new £30 million funding line to meet the growing demand for bridging loans.
Uma Rajah, CEO and co-founder, CapitalRise, said: “It’s a pleasure to share the news that CapitalRise closed a record nine loans to the value of nearly £50m in July. Throughout the volatility of the past 12 months, our team has shown great flexibility, resilience, and creativity as they structured bespoke lending solutions to continue to serve our clients – and their efforts are reflected in these results. Alternative lenders are playing an instrumental role in the development finance sector, and borrowers know that CapitalRise has the flexible approach, expert team, and robust sources of capital to deliver specialist funding at speed. As the wider macroeconomic environment shows signs of settling, I welcome the coming year where we hope to continue to build on these successes.”
Lee Francis, head of origination at CapitalRise, added: “In July, our firm enjoyed a record run of high-profile origination successes, and every single one of those is a testament to the tirelessness of our team. I am very proud of what we have achieved – across all our internal departments, as well as with our trusted professional partners. With impressive amounts of capital to deploy, and high and increasing demand from the market for development finance, we are keen to lend to quality borrowers and will continue to support their needs.”
