2025 REVIEW
Welcome
Mark Harris Chief Executive
The outlook for 2026 certainly feels more positive than the autumn of 2025, which was plagued by uncertainty and intense pre-Budget speculation. What came to pass wasn’t as bad as many had feared, though the Government offered little in the way of support or stimulus for the property market.
With the Budget out of the way and a degree of clarity restored, confidence has improved. A base-rate cut to round off last yearfollowing quarter-point reductions in February, May and Augusthas also helped sentiment. We expect further reductions in 2026, with base rate likely to settle between 3% and 3.5%. The timing of these reductions will depend on inflation, the labour market and wage growth.
Our global expansion continues to gather pace. Most recently, we welcomed Turkish-speaking advisers to serve the growing number of Turkish clients investing in UK property. In November, we also opened a new office in St Helier, Jersey. While we grow, we remain committed to delivering the premium, personalised service for which we are known.
2026 has got off to a great start for all areas of the business. Our Commercial and Specialist Debt teams - who we hear from in this publication - are performing particularly well.
Wishing you a successful 2026. w
Mark Harris
Team Highlights
TOTAL LOAN AMOUNT:
£850m
TOTAL PROPERTY VALUE:
£1.5bn
AVERAGE LOAN SIZE:
£2m
LARGEST LOAN SIZE:
£115m
NUMBER OF LENDERS USED:
98
NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS:
436
2025 Review
Daniel O’Neil Executive Director
Looking ahead in 2026, we are cautiously optimistic.
As we all settle into 2026, the specialist debt team at SPF can reflect on the past year with a strong sense of achievement following what remained a challenging but increasingly constructive period for the UK commercial real estate market. Importantly, the performance figures now reflect the activity of SPF’s full specialist debt team, bringing together expertise across commercial, development, structured, and operational real estate finance. This broader view illustrates the true depth and diversity of the team’s capabilities and our ability to advise across the entire capital stack and a wide range of asset classes.
Despite lingering macroeconomic uncertainty, our advisory activity in 2025 demonstrated both resilience and momentum. Over the course of the year, the expanded team successfully advised on 436 transactions, representing a total property value north of £1.5bn and an aggregate loan amount of £850m. This performance underscores not only scale, but also our ability to execute across transactions of varying size and complexity in a market where due diligence timelines remain extended and deal structures increasingly nuanced. The largest loan completed was for £115m, while the average loan size of £2m highlights the breadth of our transactional reach, from smaller bespoke financings to larger, complex mandates.
The early months of 2025 were characterised by cautious optimism. While borrowing costs remained elevated relative to historic norms, improving inflationary dynamics and clearer signals around the direction of interest rates helped restore confidence across both lenders and borrowers. A defining feature of our market was the dominance of refinancing over acquisition financing. Many borrowers are still grappling with loans originated in a very different interest-rate environment. Our advisers were increasingly engaged to manage maturity extensions, covenant resets, partial paydowns and capital stack re-engineering rather than simple loan placements.
This refinancing wave reinforced our strategic importance in the market and our ability to successfully navigate lender negotiations and sourcing alternative capital where incumbent banks retrenched. This level of complexity favours our advisers at SPF and further demonstrates our strong lender relationships, technical structuring capability and sector-specific insight.
As the year progressed, transaction volumes built steadily, supported by improving political clarity and a more competitive lending environment. The specialist debt team advised across the full spectrum of leverage levels and products, with particular strength again in the Living and operational sectors, including Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), Build to Rent (BTR), and Hotels. These sectors continued to benefit from strong structural demand drivers and attract sustained lender appetite.
We are grateful to the 98 lenders with whom the team transacted during the year. While we continue to work closely with a core group, the breadth of the specialist debt team and its wealth of collective experience provides unrivalled access to an extensive lender universe, spanning senior debt, mezzanine finance and equity. Many of these relationships operate at senior management or founder level, enabling us to deliver certainty of execution and secure competitive, well-structured outcomes for our clients.
SPF remains deeply grateful to its extensive client base across the UK for the continued trust and confidence placed in us. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our long-standing partners at Savills and colleagues at
Howden for their continued collaboration and support. Our advisers work closely with colleagues across Howden and Savills nationwide, providing joined-up, locally informed advice to support their clients’ financing requirements wherever they are based.
Looking ahead in 2026, we are cautiously optimistic. As refinancing pressure gradually eases, we expect to see our mandates shift from a “rescue” base to a more strategic phase. Assuming continued, “relative” macro stability and gradual easing in the cost of capital, we expect lending activity to increase further and we are hopeful for more acquisitions. Beyond residential housing which is currently caught in a viability and regulatory squeeze, we expect the broader real estate market to show some resilience. Commercial investment volumes are projected to rise, led by sectors like offices, data centres and core retail. I believe the capabilities of our expanded SPF team position us strongly to support borrowers in executing their funding strategies in what we hope to be an increasingly active and opportunity-rich market. w
A Lender’s View
Chris Gardner CEO of lender Atelier
2025 was undoubtedly a year of protracted uncertainty for developers. The Autumn Budget last year cast a long shadow over the market.
For all the speculation before the Budget, its greatest impact was the uncertainty it caused in the marketplace between August-November 2025, which resulted in a considerable negative impact on business confidence, and slowdown in deals.
Despite the ups and down of the year though, this is a resilient market and transactional activity persevered with 2025 ending as the best year for deal flow at Atelier yet.
The sector still has its challenges, and a noticeable difficulty is the protracted time periods for completion. Time kills deals, and with developers seeking finance much earlier, longer lead times for professional reports, and a variety of almost inexplicable market-driven delays, there has been an inevitable impact on transaction times. Deal pipelines now must be twice as strong for the same result.
As 2026 starts, the clouds may be clearing, and the early signs are promising for transactional activity and buyers kickstarting market demand. There are also key sectors offering good potential for growth over the next 12 months.
With an ageing population, the care sector needs to ramp up development to meet demand, with the over-65 population growing by 20% and supply not keeping pace. PBSA is also an area set for increased activity in the next year, with Gen One sites requiring refurbishment to align them with modern standards, and providers therefore looking for refinancing.
The strength of any asset class invariably depends on the strength of the residential market. We’ve already seen a BTR return, with
homebuyer reticence in 2025 yielding a more active rental sector. Residential development sites and house prices are beginning to look more affordable. Interest rates continue to fall and mortgages get cheaper, leading to improved affordability. Developers with sites to sell but not wanting to accept lower valuations had been hesitant to exit, stubbornly holding assets in hope of a rebound, but this seems to have ended, and more sites are coming to market. 2025’s distressed assets may become 2026’s new opportunities, and a gold rush in the sector is now far from fanciful.
In times of economic uncertainty, we see a flight to quality, and it’s no surprise that developers are looking to SPF. Their established position in the market and leading expertise offer a strong foundation for developers looking to leverage the best terms. Finance has needed to respond proactively to the needs of developers, and that’s why we’ve launched higher Day One advances, 20% higher on average, to make equity work harder. This is in lockstep with our crafted financial model as part of our ‘Better Day One Funding’ initiative, shortening the equity gap so developers can get projects off the ground far more quickly.
From our conversations with developers this New Year, there is certainly an optimism starting to permeate the sector. Alongside SPF’s support, we look forward to helping developers manoeuvre market challenges by providing the most competitive finance and terms to get projects delivered. w
Chris Gardner
As 2026 starts, the clouds may be clearing, and the early signs are promising for transactional activity and buyers kickstarting market demand.
Recent Transactions
£54.35m stabilisation facilities
Four completed build-to-rent (BTR) assets
w Location – North of England
w Lender – Interbay
w Client – UK BTR platform
w Purpose - To provide stabilisation facilities for four BTR assets post practical completion.
£52m refinance facility
Portfolio of residential assets
w Location – North West England
w Lender – Interbay
w Client – UK BTR platform
w Purpose – To refinance existing portfolio and release equity for further acquisitions
£32m investment and capex facility
Prime Grade A office property
w Location – City of London
w Lender – Future Growth Capital
w Client – Greycoat
w Purpose – To finance Greycoat’s investment in and refurbishment of 140 Leadenhall, a circa 45,000 sqft prime, centrally located City office property.
£27.5m refinance facility
Branded Hotel
w Location – Central London
w Lender – Virgin Money
w Client – Private UK family office
w Purpose – To allow for the refinance of a 144 key Accor branded hotel.
£27m refinance facility
90,000 sqft single let logistics and office investment
w Location – Oxfordshire
w Lender – Rothschild & Co and Just Group
w Client – Specialist investment company
w Purpose – 5-year interest only loan facility.
£17.4m refinance and stabilisation facility
106-unit build-to-rent (BTR) scheme
w Location – Hastings, East Sussex
w Lender – InterBay
w Client – Purple Pepper Partnership
w Purpose – To assist the developer in repaying development funding and providing capital for the next scheme.
£16m refurbishment bridge and development loan
Penthouse
w Location – London
w Lender – MERA
w Client – UHNW individual
w Purpose – To redeem the first charge lender and raise £4.5m towards the refurbishment works which will enable the completion of a floor above the penthouse.
£15.7m development loan
Former Hotel California
w Location – Newquay, Cornwall
w Lender – Maslow
w Client – Private UK family office
w Purpose – To finance the conversion of a former hotel into apartments, penthouses and houses.
£12.75m 5-year term loan facility
Specialist educational school
w Location – Home Counties
w Lender – Coutts
w Client – Private UK family office
w Purpose – To refinance the property and fund an extension.
£12.7m refinance facility
61 co-living student apartments with amenity space
w Location – Bristol
w Lender – GRE Capital
w Client – Rengen
w Purpose – Asset stabilisation loan.
£12.5m combined bridging and development loan
Two student accommodation projects
w Location – South-West England
w Lender – CapitalRise
w Client – Rengen Developments
w Purpose – The first transaction was a bridging loan in Bristol, allowing the client to complete lettings and create a consistent flow of rental income on the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) scheme. The second loan also supported a PBSA scheme, this time in Bath.
£11.25m development loan
Pre-let retail units, car parking and the provision of a football pitch and clubhouse
w Location – Isle of Wight
w Lender – Quantum Development Finance
w Client – South Coast Leisure Limited
w Purpose – To assist with the development works of five pre-let retail units along with associated car parking and the provision of a football pitch and clubhouse.
£10.9m residential development loan
Conversion and refurb of Grade II listed buildings
w Location – Wales
w Lender – LendInvest
w Client – Acorn Property Group
w Purpose – To allow for the transformation of three Grade II listed buildings into 48 high-quality private apartments.
£7.7m senior debt loan
Student accommodation acquisition and development facility
w Location – Bristol
w Lender – Atelier
w Client – Rengen Developments
w Purpose – Purchase and development facility for a bespoke student scheme.
£8m commercial term facility
Acquisition of an industrial portfolio
w Location – South Yorkshire
w Lender – Lloyds
w Client – Tandem Investments
w Purpose – The investor acquired a highly reversionary portfolio with the capacity for asset management of the site creating value. The site had several complexities including multiple titles and almost 50 leases.
£5.64m regulated bridging loan
Main residence
w Location – Surrey
w Lender – Precise Mortgages
w Client – Owner occupier
w Purpose - The client needed a loan to refinance their existing mortgage and raise funds for a large extension to enhance the property’s value. Once complete, the property will be placed on the market for sale.
Our Commercial Team
Daniel O’Neil
Executive Director
Yeadon Executive Director
Russell Hall
Executive Director
Daniel joined SPF in 2007 from another Mayfair-based advisory, where he had worked since graduating from UCL and Cass Business School.
With nearly 25 years’ experience, Daniel has a strong track record of successful deal placements across the entire capital stack. He has deep expertise in structuring complex funding solutions within the Living sector, with a particular focus on the residential and PBSA markets. Over his career, Daniel has built long-standing client relationships across the UK, advising many leading developers and investors. These relationships are complemented by founder-level connections across the banking and non-bank lending markets, as well as with equity and joint-venture partners.
David began his career at RCC Financial Services (Christie Group PLC) in 1987, where he remained until joining SPF in 2001 as Head of Real Estate – Debt Advisory.
During his career, David has arranged commercial debt solutions across the spectrum to include PBSA, hotels, healthcare and all commercial investment sectors such as industrial, retail, offices, logistics, residential investment and development. He has an extensive private client network and long-standing relationships with retail lenders, private banks, debt funds and insurance companies. David specialises in high-value transactions and complex arrangements.
Russell started his career in banking with Capital Bank and HBOS before joining SPF in 2004. In 2011 Russell became the youngest director within SPF and continued to expand his knowledge in the real estate debt advisory area of the business.
With an extensive knowledge of development, investment and residential lending he is confident in advising across various sectors. His relationships with lending institutions and banks across the UK are unparalleled, giving SPF and its clients access to highly competitive funding solutions. With a focus on the regions and Scotland, Russell brings a national yet local approach to the team.
David
Derek Simpson Director
James Hedges Associate
John Rubbert Director
Derek started his real estate lending career with Bank of Scotland in London. Prior to joining SPF in 2020, he headed up the Structured Real Estate team at Santander, focusing on commercial real estate transactions ranging in size from £20m to £250m. Derek is a highly-experienced banker with 20 years’ experience in the real estate sector and has arranged finance in excess of £3bn over the past decade across most sectors.
These sectors include commercial investment and development, residential development, retail, hotel investment and development, data centres and light industrial/logistics.
James joined SPF in 2019 having worked in debt advisory since 2012. He began his career as a specialist in financing the hotel and hospitality sectors at Eakin Macdonald & Associates Ltd. Since then, James has diversified into other commercial sectors, focusing particularly on residential development finance.
Since joining SPF, James has arranged a number of finance facilities with traditional bank lenders, debt funds and joint-venture equity partners for both development and investment transactions.
John joined SPF in February 2024 having spent the majority of his career as a real estate lender. Prior to joining he led the Commercial Real Estate Origination and Portfolio Management team at Wells Fargo, responsible for annual loan origination of circa £2.5 billion and a portfolio of approximately £10 billion across core real estate sectors.
John has 25 years real estate financing experience, specialising in structuring investment and development facilities in the UK and Ireland. Financing partners include traditional banking lenders, insurers and private credit investors, servicing international private equity investors, private and institutional UK investors, municipal pension/sovereign wealth funds and the listed sector.
Ian Leader Director
Ian joined SPF as a founding member of the Commercial team in 2001. He has been in the industry for the past 38 years covering sectors which include residential and commercial investment, residential and commercial development, owner occupied businesses and trading businesses.
Ian’s depth of knowledge and wealth of experience have proved invaluable over the years, with numerous clients returning to him time and time again for assistance with their funding requirements.
Natalie Glover Associate
Tom Naidu Associate
Natalie joined SPF in 2022 to further her career after 10 years’ experience heading up a small team at a previous brokerage. She has a keen interest in development finance and commercial term, with an in depth knowledge of bridging finance.
Natalie started her career in construction project management, working alongside developers on site. This unique experience has allowed her to build strong relationships with clients and she is well respected amongst peers in the industry.
Tom joined SPF in 2024 to expand the offering clients could benefit from with SPF. Having worked in commercial finance for over a decade, and in a boutique SME focused brokerage for eight of those, Tom brings an array of solutions to any trading or property business.
His consultative based approach allows his clients to benefit from his knowledge to find the product that suits their needs best. This has allowed him to build a client base across the UK that regularly call upon his expertise in sourcing finance facilities. These facilities have included bridging, development, asset, unsecured and invoice finance, along with buy-to-let and commercial mortgages.
Short-Term Finance Update
Amadeus Wilson Executive Director
The emerging picture for 2026 is of a bridging market that is:
• Buoyant in aggregate, supported by investors shifting towards refurbishment, conversion and specialist sectors;
• Increasingly dependent on rebridging and development exits, as borrowers take longer to sell and refinance;
• Uneven across price points, with prime London and the £3m plus bracket particularly exposed to tax and policy risk;
• Experiencing strong growth in auction led transactions, yet seeing weaker demand from mainstream regulated homeowners.
2026 has begun with a curious mix of optimism and realism. On the one hand, we’ve seen rising confidence and a strong pipeline, particularly across rebridging and development exit opportunities. On the other hand, the Autumn Budget and the broader tax landscape have cast a long shadow over the high-end market, slowing prime transactions and reshaping how wealthier clients use short-term funding.
This is a sector evolving at pace – driven by more creative investment strategies, extended sales timelines and a widening divide between prime London and the rest of the UK.
Owing to a slower sales pace, we completed 50 per cent more development exit loans in 2025 than in 2024. Slower sales are tying up capital for longer and leaving developers exposed to costlier development finance facilities. Development exit loans are being used to release equity, improve cash flow and de risk schemes, even where projects are largely performing to plan.
In contrast, regulated residential homeowner bridging has moved the other way, with SPF seeing around 30 per cent fewer enquiries than at the same point last year. For many owner occupiers, higher borrowing costs, affordability constraints and general macro uncertainty are dampening demand for short term solutions, particularly where they are discretionary rather than essential.
One of the standout growth stories, however, is auction finance. We’ve seen a large uptick in demand as auctions gain momentum across both residential and commercial assets. For time sensitive buyers looking to move quickly on competitively priced stock –especially in secondary or value add locations – bridging is the obvious facilitator. w
Business Finance Update
Tom Naidu Associate
Trading businesses were hit by a myriad of challenges in 2025, including the National Insurance increase in April, rising cyber-attacks, inflation, new tariffs and increased labour, material and logistics costs.
From a lending perspective, the Supreme Court ruling in August on motor finance commission had a transformative effect across a wide range of lending mechanisms - from asset finance to unsecured loans and more. Some lenders and brokers are still reeling from the implications of this decision.
Despite these difficulties, the truly most taxing aspect of 2025 on SMEs was economic uncertainty (source: ONS – Business Insights and Impact on the UK economy, 18.12.2025). This impacts not only internal decision-making but also the decisions made by suppliers and, most importantly, by clients. It depresses demand, which reverberates throughout the entire supply chain.
However, with a late Bank of England base rate cut and lower than expected inflation, consumer confidence saw a modest rise in December. Should this growth in confidence persist and not be impacted heavily by global or domestic events, SPF expects to see an improved lending landscape in 2026. Lenders have substantial debt capacity to deploy following a challenging 2025, which should translate into an increased appetite to lend as economic conditions stabilise.
While further hurdles await businesses in 2026 - including April’s minimum wage increase, regulatory developments and continued market uncertainty - there is hope for a sustained period of stability which would be a welcome boost for trading businesses. w
Tom Naidu
