Martley provides £13m loans to Leeds investor
Social housing and industrial assets amounting to 570,000 sq ft are the security for the mezzanine facilities provided to investor and developer Daniel Newett.
Martley Capital Group, the real estate investment platform founded by Richard Croft, arranged for investors to provide £12.9m of mezzanine loans.
The two separate loans have been advanced to companies directed by Newett and sit at 44.4% to 65.1% loan-to-value. The loans will be used to refinance existing debt, fund works to accommodate new tenants and provide a cash reserve for debt servicing during rent-free periods.
Martley said that the business plan includes a long-term hold for both assets as they are intended to be cornerstone assets in the sponsor’s core income portfolio. During the term of the loan, the sponsor intends to execute new leases to maximise income and value in the short term while triggering a longer-term strategy for change of use.
Newett, a prominent figure in the regional industry, has more than 15 years’ experience operating in the UK commercial and residential property business, and is a shareholder of Avant Homes and co-founder of Berkley DeVeer.
Tom Tunley, director of debt capital markets at Martley Capital, said: “I am pleased to have completed these financings with Daniel, it is testament to the Martley group’s lending appetite and ability to deploy capital into assets with a value-add profile.
“Daniel has a fantastic track record of buying well and delivering value for himself and his partners. The two assets are very well located and provide multiple routes for the sponsor to create value through various asset management initiatives which have been carefully structured and we believe to be are highly deliverable.”
Newett added: “Martley Capital have been very good to work with on this transaction and have demonstrated great flexibility in their approach, which I believe is under pinned by their underlying knowledge of the real estate which enabled a great outcome on these two assets.’’
These latest deals form part of the Martley Capital Group’s gap financing strategy to provide loans to borrowers who need to refinance or who have existing loans that have suffered LTV breaches due to declining market values.
In January Martley Capital arranged a £32.25m mezzanine loan to refinance a portfolio of five UK retail warehouse assets owned by Tristan Capital Partners’ European Property Special Opportunities 3 Fund in its first deal since launching in December 2023 with more than 40 staff, five offices across the UK and Europe and around £900m in assets under management across 19 mandates.
Prior to founding Martley, Croft was the founder and executive chairman of M7 Real Estate, the €7bn pan-European real estate asset manager sold to Oxford Properties in 2021.
