Last month we hosted an invitation-only evening reception for our clients and partners at Cinema City in Norwich. The exclusive event, which was attended by many of the heavyweights in the Norfolk property market, was a sign of our deep commitment to continuing to support property developers across the region who require funding to build the homes the county needs. Since the start of this year, we have been building our footprint on the Norfolk property scene and we are looking forward to further strengthening our relationship with all the players in that property market.
Research shows that Norwich has the second highest graduate retention rate in the UK, with over 40% of graduates staying in the local area mainly due to the city’s great career opportunities and good lifestyle [1]. According to the Nationwide House Price Index [2], in Q1 2019 house prices in East Anglia grew over 4 times more than the UK average and over the past 30 quarters house price growth in East Anglia was higher than the UK average 77% of the time. Furthermore, over the past decade house price growth in East Anglia was higher than the UK average 80% of the time.
Yet our conversations with local property developers show that funding remains an issue for local experienced property developers. As a senior property developer from Norfolk behind one of Blend Network’s projects, puts it ‘As developers we are experienced in a variety of investment strategies. As such there is not a shortage of opportunities available. However, many opportunities have been delayed, frustrated or lost due to the constrained nature of some lenders we have tried working with in the past. In many cases we have found that this has been caused by a prospective lender not understanding the processes a developer like us has to go through on a larger project. We are pleased to say this was not the case with Blend Network. It has been refreshing to work with a company that understands the developers process and project lifecycle and help us recognise the opportunities available to us and thus able to finance accordingly’.
Paul Watson, Head of Origination at Blend Network adds ‘Everyone says they are lending but they really are not. When we talk to the developers on the ground, one thing that everyone agrees on is that even the big boys don’t really have the appetite for lending despite saying they want to lend. However, we are aggressively in the market looking to fund deals. Our origination guys are on the ground in Norfolk weekly talking to developers, contractors, lawyers, accountants, valuers, QS’s, planning consultants and every mover and shaker in the property market. We are looking to fund those experienced property developers who are currently under-serviced and looking to build the homes the region needs.’
If you have a project that you’d like to discuss with us, get in touch! Call us on 020 3409 3300, drop us an email on enquiries@blendnetwork.com or just come and grab a coffee at our office in London’s Mayfair. We are here to listen and help you with your project.
[1] https://www.norwichbid.co.uk/assets/Uploads/NORWICH-BID-BUSINESS-PROSPECTUS-05-14.pdf
[2] https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/house-price-index/download-data#xtab:regional-quarterly-series-all-properties-data-available-from-1973-onwards
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