Alexandra House

Octopus provides £6m facility for west London development



Octopus Property and Pure Commercial Finance have teamed up to provide a £6m facility for the purchase and development of a west London residential scheme.


Vivant Homes required the funding to purchase a 1930s-built office block and create 21 high-quality studio, one- and two-bedroom flats on the site.

The Alexandra House project (pictured above) has a gross development value of £10m and is located in the borough of Ealing, just six miles from central London.

Due to a number of parties interested in the development and a requirement to increase the original number of planned units, Vivant Homes had a short window to secure funding.

Vivant Homes approached Pure Commercial Finance seeking an initial bridging loan to purchase the existing building.

Octopus Property and Pure Commercial Finance were able to achieve initial enquiry to completion in less than three weeks, which allowed all the parties involved to arrange a facility for the development and for the necessary changes to be made to the planning.

Emma Burke, head of development origination at Octopus Property, said: “The opportunity with Vivant was an example of collaboration and flexibility at its best.

“With our unique lifecycle lending proposition, our commercial team was able to assist with the acquisition of the asset regardless of the tight timeframes.

“We then flipped the loan seamlessly into a development facility – using all the same professionals – to provide 100% of the funding for the development costs.”

Tom Lee, head of structured finance at Pure Commercial Finance, added: “We were up against some tight timescales and needed some flexibility to purchase the site for the client and then move it on to a development facility.

“The clients were meticulous in their approach and had done their research, so were a pleasure to work with.

“Octopus excelled themselves on overcoming obstacles where challenged.”



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