Specialist lender Octopus Property (OP) has made three senior hires in its development team, following a period of record lending.
The company has appointed Paul Watson, Martyn Pollock and Matt Foley to the roles of development origination manager, refurbishment origination manager and credit underwriter respectively.
Watson started his career at Jones Lang La Salle, then joined Royal Bank of Scotland’s asset management team and most recently worked managing a number of successful family office real estate portfolios. Pollock is a former corporate lawyer, who previously ran a boutique residential development business, focused on schemes with a £2-£5mln gross development value. Foley joins from Lloyds Banking Group, where he spent five years in restructuring before working as the bank’s hotel and retail analyst.
Since May 2017, OP has lent a record £94 mln (€103 mln), funding a total of 21 schemes. The wider OP business has doubled its origination volumes over the past 24 months as a result of launching new products and increasing the size of its team from 40 people in January to more than 60 today. It expects to grow its new lending to £1 bn a year in the next 12 months and double the size of its loan book to £1.5 bn over the next two years.
'Our loan book continues to build at record pace, through lending on liquid sensibly priced schemes in strong locations and partnering with experienced developers,' said Emma Burke, head of Development Origination at Octopus Property.
