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Date: 4 October 2021

Author: Rachel Bartlett

Our biggest development deal since we were founded 40 years ago has been completed.

We agreed an £11 million loan to enable a 43-home scheme to come to fruition on a previously disused piece of land.

The move marks a record year of growth for us with our loan book first breaking the £250 million threshold, and now standing at just over £350 million with contracted commitments.

The new scheme, Swanwick Fields near Alfreton in Derbyshire, is a ground-up development that has required refinancing to keep build timescales on track.

We agreed the loan with East Midlands housing developer Fairgrove, who expressed praise that we were able to provide an arrangement that is “competitive, flexible and a facilitator of growth for our business”.

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“Our original funding was expensive and was restricting the speed of build so we had been looking for some time to refinance. When I spoke with MSP in early August, we provided them with all the figures and what we wanted to do. Within three weeks we had an acceptable offer. Four weeks later we have completed on the deal. I was particularly impressed that MSP’s Managing Director Martin Higgins personally worked on the figures over a weekend to enable the timescales we were working towards.”

Stephen Midgley, Managing Director of Fairgrove

Swanwick Fields is one of the larger schemes that family-run Fairgrove has developed since it was formed in 1995.

Stephen added: “It is a scheme that has been 15 years in the planning.  When I first saw the site all those years ago it was unused land owned by a local businessman who needed to expand his nearby factory.

“Due to the sloping nature of the site, I had suggested it would be more suitable for housing and eventually the planners agreed.

“So through the sale of the site, he now has the ability to move his factory to a more suitable location, and we’re able to build 43 family homes.”

Completion of the Swanwick Fields homes, a mix of four and five bedrooms, is expected in the second half of 2022.

Sales have already been achieved for some of the properties as they are being built out in a phased allocation.

Hearing from our Managing Director

Martin Higgins said: “Our team at MSP Capital have worked seamlessly to strengthen our reach and resilience through what has been such an uncertain time for a lot of industries.

“Thanks to everyone’s input we have the lending power behind us to lend on deals like this, together with the technology and infrastructure to back it up.

“We’re on track to achieve our goal of a loan book worth £0.5 billion by the end of next year.”

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