UK Specialist property lender Octopus Property has appointed Carl Graham as business development manager, North of England.
Graham brings around 15 years’ sales and real estate experience, and will be responsible for driving further loan book growth, across both commercial and residential investment.
'Carl has built a reputation in the market for truly understanding borrowers financing requirements and delivering significant business growth as a result,' commented Mario Berti, CEO of Octopus Property.
'As investors and developers increasingly look to diversify their property portfolios away from London and the South East, Carl’s market intelligence and deep intermediary network will be invaluable in supporting our ambitious plans for 2018, as we target a multi-billion pound loan book and a number of innovative new product launches.'
Since 2011, Graham has been sales director at Bridgebank Capital, where he sat on the main board and was responsible for setting up the ‘Quantum by Bridgebank Capital’ brand, growing the mortgage book by 300% within 12 months of launch. Prior to this he held a number of other business development and underwriting roles.
2017 saw Octopus Property transact record volumes, growing the loan book to over £800 mln (€910 mln) following the launch of its unique Lifecycle Lending proposition.
Graham’s appointment follows a number of other senior hires across the business over the past 12 months, including January’s appointment of Sean Deacon as head of core credit. Octopus now numbers a 62-strong team, up from 40 at the start of last year.
