Octopus Real Estate funds purchase of land for new development in Hampshire

Octopus Real Estate, part of Octopus Investments and a leading UK specialist real estate lender and investor, recently completed a £1.7m commercial bridge loan secured on 2.19 acres of land with planning permission for a 60-bedroom care home in Odiham, Hampshire.

In addition to the care home, the planning includes consent for the construction of 30 residential properties on adjoining land. The borrower is part of the Aspire Group, and this marked their twelfth loan with Octopus.

The loan has now been redeemed with the sale of the care home site to Barchester Healthcare, with contracts exchanged in June. Barchester is an independent care provider, running over 250 care homes and seven registered hospitals across the UK.

James Nunn, commercial fund manager at Octopus Real Estate, said: “This exemplifies exactly the kind of loan we specialise in here at Octopus. As a non-bank lender, we were able to provide speedy, bespoke finance for this development, which will have a positive impact on the local community whilst delivering much-needed, fit-for-purpose, quality homes and care beds that go towards helping to solve the housing crisis.

“As an experienced investor in care homes as well as a lender, we were uniquely positioned to support the Aspire team with this loan. It’s been really satisfying to join the dots between the Octopus Real Estate teams and work together to get this one over the line.”

Michael Lucas, managing director, Aspire Group, said: “Octopus fully understood our ambitions for this site, having experience across the whole spectrum of real estate. The team are always a pleasure to work with extremely professional, transparent and rapid.

“We know that there’s pent up demand for care homes in this area, so we are very proud to play a significant part in delivering these vital beds for older members of the community. The residential portion of the site will also deliver 14 much needed affordable homes to the area. Aspire have a development pipeline of in excess of 1,000 care beds across the UK and we look forward to working with Octopus across our portfolio.”

Julian Burgess, land buyer, Barchester, concluded: “Barchester Healthcare are delighted to be involved with this project, which will deliver a state-of-the-art care home to help service the massive need for care beds in the area. We are, as usual, grateful for Christies’ professional input at the outset and for ensuring that the initial acquisition process went smoothly.”

More recently, Octopus has completed a further loan to assist Aspire Group on the acquisition of another site in West Malling, Kent. The security comprises a former office building with planning consent for a 78-bedroom care home.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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