I Am A Property Developer – Ask Me Anything!

Reply to the comment left by “David Harrold” at “22/04/2015 – 23:51“:

Hi David

I am the founder of Property118, previously I was a commercial finance broker and a founder member of the NACFB. I have all the contacts you need, please see my member profile for my contact details.
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Reply to the comment left by “David Harrold” at “22/04/2015 – 23:51“:

David, I’ve never bought at auction and have never needed bridging finance for a transaction. I’ve looked at so-called mezzanine finance as an option for development finance, but was put off by the credit-card levels of interest – 1.5-2% a month will torpedo anyone’s bottom line – and cheeky practices like charging entrance and exit fees of up to 2.5% either side of the loan, for no apparent reason other than “because we want to”. I’ve always found it far more viable to go through a bank, or seek a loan or co-investment from friends and family.

There are a couple of good examples of competitive development finance deals arranged by NACFB members on this page >>> https://www.property118.com/property-development-finance-recent-examples/
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Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “23/04/2015 – 08:22“:

Hi Mark, many thanks for the swift response, I’ll contact you directly.

Reply to the comment left by “Tony Atkins” at “23/04/2015 – 10:10“:

Thanks Tony, I share your concerns re the punitive in/out fees for many short term finance products – and although I’ve previously used high street banks for a couple of BTL’s they appear to be behind the game for shorter term development/refurb capital.
JV and family funding is interesting though, I’d have thought it would be worthwhile to offer an attractive (0.75-1%) on this as it’s relatively straight forward and avoids many of the usual costs – any thoughts?

Reply to the comment left by “David Harrold” at “23/04/2015 – 12:15“:

There is also a Crowd Funding portal for development finance. I think it may be exclusive to NACFB members though.
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Hi Tony,

I am interested in exploring the buy to let market. Unfortunately I have no cash available for a mortgage deposit. However my home is worth around £210,000 and I have only a£40,000 mortgage, so I am wondering if there is some way of using the equity in my home to fund a project? I live on the south cost in an place where property prices are low compared to nearby areas, and was thinking it would suit me best to invest locally.

Many thanks.

Hello Hermione, May I suggest you report this query, as it is really a question for the wider Property118 board, not my page, which is about property development. In brief, if your income is enough and you have a good credit rating, you could certainly be able to remortgage your home to raise capital for use as a deposit on a BTL. Keeping it local is generally best if you are just starting out, so you can keep an eye on things and do a good deal of the administrative work yourself if you have the time.

As a beginner, please consider joining the Residential Landlords Association or the NLA: at the very least they have excellent advice lines for members, and a wealth of online information, forms and so on.

Great, thanks Tony. Sorry about posting in the wrong place.

Hi Tony

Your offer to ask you anything has allowed to me feel ok in asking you a “how long is a bit of string” question!

Am looking to covert an old church that is about 150m2. (simple empty oblong shape)
Hoping for 2 floors of 2*2 bed flats (4 flats in total)
Assuming main building is structurally sound what would be a “ball park” figure for putting in a steel structure to hang the flats from (so as not to stress original building at all) ? And how much to have them at a mid to high end finish?

Any advice from your experience would be gratefully received.

I can see your main expertise seems to be in new builds – just trying to get a rough idea at this stage.

Thanks for any pointers you can give!

Simon