Round Hill Capital is backing a Hilltop Credit Partners, a new company set up to lend to housebuilders and residential developers in the UK.
Hilltop will provide more than £125m (€145m) of lending over the next 12 months to “proven” small and mid-sized developers in the UK, a country it says “suffers from a chronic undersupply of housing”.
The company, established by businessman and property entrepreneur Paul Oberschneider, is designed to move quickly so developers can seize opportunities, with loans ranging from £3m to £20m.
It has a “near-term launch pipeline” of more than £40m to fund residential schemes in various UK locations, including Windsor, York and the Midlands.
Oberschneider said: “Our joint venture with Round Hill Capital brings together our collective experience and skills to support proven SME housebuilders throughout the UK, and to help promote greater housing supply that is more affordable than what the large housebuilders focus on delivering.”
He added: “Hilltop is an agile and entrepreneurial team with significant financial firepower to deploy, and the industry expertise and reach required to move quickly to fund the delivery of more new homes in the UK.
“We have been significant developers ourselves and we understand development risk and market cycles.”
Michael Bickford, founder and CEO of Round Hill Capital, said: “Consistent with many European countries, the UK’s residential housing market suffers from structural supply-demand imbalances as well as a development funding shortfall.
Round Hill has a proven 17-year track record of investing into residential markets across Europe, where we identify opportunities that will deliver quality housing.”
