Maslow Capital buys £100m loan portfolio

Maslow Capital has completed the acquisition of a loan portfolio secured against a blend of land with planning, residential, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and mixed-use development schemes. This represents Maslow’s first participation in the secondary market with a further transaction currently under consideration.

In aggregate, the portfolio will see more than 438,000 sq. ft. of new residential, mixed-used and PBSA units delivered.  Assets are well located across regional markets in the UK and are in line with Maslow’s strategy of targeting key regional cities.

Demand for Maslow’s senior debt and stretch senior debt products have been growing and we have, to date, provided debt facilities with a collective GDV in excess of £1.6 billion, covering 4,900 new properties enabling the delivery of more than 3.2 million sq. ft. of new accommodation throughout England and Wales. Maslow’s ability to acquire this portfolio was made possible by the depth and flexibility of its balance sheet together with a team that possesses the necessary skills to assess a complex loan portfolio secured on part-built assets.

This acquisition represents an exciting opportunity for Maslow, enabling us to gain further exposure in target markets across the UK, reinforcing our capability across residential, mixed-use and the PBSA market, in which we see particular growth potential going forward. The purchase of an existing loan portfolio is a first for us and we hope to make further acquisitions of this nature in the future as we further scale our lending.

Maslow Capital Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Portfolio Update

We are a leading provider of development finance for the construction of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA). To date, we have supported a number of developers with both senior and stretch senior finance facilities and we have a tremendous appetite to grow our loan book by supporting experienced developers with their PBSA schemes.

Next week we’ll be at the Property Week Student Accommodation Conference, and encourage anyone interested or involved in the Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) industry to attend the event and chat with Sky Mapson our PBSA specialist originator and his team at our exhibition stand.

Sky Mapson can be contacted on:
Email: sky.mapson@maslowcapital.com
Mobile: 07500 874 468
Landline: 0207 016 1465

Will they, won’t they? What to expect (or not) in the Autumn Budget

The Autumn Budget is almost upon us and, we have been mulling over what important changes we expect the Chancellor to make.

We anticipate that there will be a change to the way Stamp Duty is structured: the publication of Theresa May’s White Paper earlier in the year identified a broken housing market, and coupled with this and the slowdown nationally in transaction volumes off the back of political and economic uncertainty, change to stamp duty would be a logical next step to fix this.

What we think is unlikely, but not off the table completely, is that there will be any big adjustment at the top end of the market, in the +£1 million category. A small reduction in the charges at the prime end could have a big impact on liquidity, however this is probably not where the Chancellor will be focussed.

A more plausible scenario is another stamp duty holiday for first time buyers, similar to that between 2010 and 2012, when properties below £250,000 were exempt from stamp duty. A move like this is unlikely to have much impact in London where average property prices are £483,568, according to HM Land Registry, but could help improve liquidity in the rest of the UK.  A stamp duty holiday together with the continuation of Help to Buy, will benefit this important part of the housing sector.

There have also been calls for the Government to remove stamp duty entirely for older homeowners, to encourage people to downsize. It’s hard to see how this could be implemented but supporters say this would help increase the supply of family sized homes. A guise of this in conjunction with further stimulus for increasing housing supply, rather than just supporting demand, may be at the forefront of the Budget. For example, the government could give corporate tax reductions to encourage developers to deliver new housing in certain areas where there is a particular supply and demand imbalance.

Lastly, in a bid to win back some popularity amongst the younger generations, we anticipate a probable shake-up of student loans, something that would help support the student sector.

Watch this space…