We'd had a loan with Bank of Scotland Corporate for a number of years. Then an opportunity arose for us to buy a site in Hammersmith & Fulham. Land really is at a premium in the south-east, so we couldn't pass up the chance to buy a large, central London site with planning consent already given for a range of different housing types. Being so perfect for RSL purposes, it was just too good to miss.
Well naturally this site would be appealing to other RSLs too, so we needed to move fast. First Bank of Scotland Corporate dealt with the funding; they took a good look at the situation to examine the options, and told us that the property our existing loan facility had been secured on had, over time, increased in price. They extended the facility on that basis.
This presented a further issue. Because we'd bought the land with the extra funding as a charity, we couldn't have it all on our books. So Bank of Scotland are helping with the transfer of assets to a different part of the group - a solution we couldn't have executed alone. Not only that, but such a detailed and complex deal would usually take between three and four months. We didn't have that long.
Having seen these kind of deals before – Bank of Scotland have something like 200 RSLs on their books – they managed to do it for us in less than one month.
£46.1m. Bank of Scotland Corporate took build-for-sale risk and development risk – something that, in our experience, not all lenders would be prepared to do. And we were able to do all this through one contact at the bank. Bank of Scotland Corporate helped us immensely within the confines of very strict timings. In fact the deadline really was so tight that we had no time to deal with the ins and outs of the whole procedure. They delivered and yet kept things simple for us, and now we're better placed to do our job and put roofs over people's heads.
Now you have listened to what our customers have to say, perhaps you'd like to hear what we can do for your business. Why not call us on 0845 608 7882†? (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).
