Pluto Finance completes £100m of bridge loans in 2018

Pluto Finance achieved its goal of completing £100m of bridge loans in its first full year of providing bridging finance.

This total has accumulated from providing 20 loans throughout England and Wales, with an average loan size of £4.8m and loan to value of up to 72%.

The purpose of these loans ranged from office buildings with short leases remaining to the refurbishment of office and residential buildings. Loans have also been provided for sites with residential planning permission where borrowers were seeking to reconfigure the planning and then obtain development finance, and for development exit.

One of the most notable bridge loans Pluto provided in 2018 was to assist with the urgent acquisition of an office block in Staines-upon-Thames. The loan itself had a 68% loan to value, with market leading pricing of 0.6% pcm and 0.81% arrangement fee.

Other significant projects include a gross development loan of £11.932m at 73.1% LTGDV to fund the build costs of a new scheme of 45 self-contained flats in Brentwood, Essex, and refinance previous acquisition costs.

A gross development loan of £10.572m was also provided for a new build scheme of 30 houses in Norton Heath, Essex. This sum covered the refinancing an existing bridge loan, which was used to secure the purchase of the scheme whilst enabling remediation works to be completed and quantified. This loan was provided at 72% LTGDV with a day 1 loan of £2.97m plus 100% of the build costs at £6.450m. In addition, Pluto Finance funded £200,000 of the mobilisation costs including remediation works.

Justin Faiz, partner at Pluto Finance, comments: “We set the team an initial target of £100m of bridge loans and are delighted to have achieved this within just one year. We continue to offer the best rates on bridge loans, as well as senior and stretched senior loans, and are confident of exceeding this total in 2019.”