United Trust Bank announces three new appointments in property development sales team
United Trust Bank (UTB) has appointed three new property development directors and managers as it continues to expand its property development division and increase support to housebuilders, developers and brokers across England and Wales.
Neil Birse has been appointed as a director in the property development team. He has worked in banking for 30 years, the last 17 of which he has specialised in providing development finance to housebuilders and developers. He joined UTB from Assetz Capital but has also worked with Bank of Ireland, Bristol & West and RBS. Neil is based in Bristol and is supporting housebuilders and developers across the South West of England.
Tim Manley has 15 years’ corporate and real estate banking experience and joined UTB from Bank of London & Middle East (BLME). He has also worked with lenders including ABC International Bank and Barclays. As a manager in the property development team at UTB, he will be working alongside Hardeep Thandi to support housebuilders across Yorkshire, Humberside and the North-East.
Ross McCarthy has been appointed manager in the property development team. He has worked for UTB in the case management team for the last two years and prior to that with specialist lenders including AIB and Arbuthnot Latham. He will be working with Luke Benton Drury supporting housebuilders and developers in London, the South and South East of England.
At the start of 2022, UTB announced that its property development loan book had exceeded £1bn for the first time following a record year of new originations in 2021. The specialist lender has now expanded the property development Sales team to 24 property development directors and managers. In addition, last year UTB formed a number of strategic partnerships with government agencies designed to help housebuilders and developers gain access to competitive, higher geared funding.
The Bank is continuing its expansion of the division with more locally based property development directors and managers working with housebuilders to provide a range of development finance and developer exit solutions. It will also implement technology designed to accelerate and simplify the funding application process for brokers and customers and continue to explore opportunities to develop its offering and establish further strategic alliances.
Adam Bovingdon, head of property development at United Trust Bank commented: “We’re continuing to attract experienced real estate finance professionals to support growing numbers of housebuilders and developers across England and Wales. Neil and Tim are excellent additions to the UTB team and they are already out in their regions talking to housebuilders and brokers, increasing awareness of UTB’s development finance offering and discussing a variety of schemes we are keen to fund. Ross has had two good years with the Bank supporting clients in our case management team. His new role will see him working with Luke and developing new relationships with brokers and housebuilders across London and the South East. We look forward to seeing his career progress with the Bank.
“Having topped off a record 2021 by increasing our development loan book to more than £1bn, we are looking to sustain that strong momentum and help housebuilders overcome the challenges of running their businesses in a high inflation environment. Our loan commitments now support the delivery of in excess of 6000 new homes across England and Wales at any one time and we have the capability and appetite to increase that further. Our partnerships with government agencies such as Homes England have also enabled us to boost lending of higher geared funding to qualifying housebuilders and developers, giving them the flexibility to retain more of their cash to seize and invest in other opportunities. This year we are expanding our regional coverage, further improving our compelling offering and assisting the resurgence of the SME housebuilding sector.”
