Blend opens Belfast office and appoints lending manager for NI

London-based development finance lender opens new Northern Ireland office to help deploy £120m in committed capital to SME property developers

Blend Network, the specialist development finance lender, has announced the opening of a new Northern Ireland office in Belfast.

The London-based firm has also appointed property lending expert Philip Anderson as lending manager to lead Northern Ireland lending operations.

Blend has been funding SME property developers in Northern Ireland since 2018 and has now decided to further step up its strong commitment to the Northern Irish market following the market strength witnessed over the past 12 months.

Some of the many real estate schemes that have funded in Northern Ireland over the years include residential dwellings at Drummond Manor, Limavady, residential properties at Woodbrook Village, Omagh, two bedroom flats in Bangor, houses in Newry and a large housing scheme in Holywood.

The arrival of Philip will help Blend deploy a large pool of funding recently committed by several family offices and a group of prominent investors.

Philip’s appointment will also help the firm expand its fast-growing regional footprint following the recent appointment of veteran property and finance expert Chris Mason as lending director based in Cambridgeshire.

The news comes at an exciting time for the business and follows Blend’s recent completion of an equity funding round led by several notable family

offices and experienced investors who also committed funding to deploy across the UK residential market.

Blend will offer up to 70% LTGDV on development finance and bridging loans in Northern Ireland.

The network is a specialist development finance lender backed by leading family offices and investors such as Cyrus Ardalan, former vice chairman of Barclays and current chairman of OakNorth Bank, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd and CAF Financial Solutions Ltd, Jean-Phillipe Blochet, co-founder of Brevan Howard, a $40bn macro hedge fund, the family office of former CEO and current chairman of Publicis Group Maurice Levy and Nico Paraskevas, a former senior executive at Glencore.

Last year, Blend won Innovator of the Year at the UK Housing Awards and was a finalist Development Lender of the Year — Up to £10m at the Bridging & Commercial Awards.

Philip has 10 years of experience in banking and finance and a deep knowledge of the Northern Irish property market. His most recent position was relationship manager in the corporate banking property team at Allied Irish Bank where he focused on providing specialist development finance to residential and commercial schemes across Northern Ireland. Philip’s extensive banking, finance and real estate career included a role within the advisory practice at PwC.

The Northern Ireland office aims to help deploy £120m in committed capital to SME property developers, Yann Murciano, CEO at Blend Network, explained: “We are delighted to welcome Philip to our growing lending team. Philip has a breadth and depth of experience across the real estate and finance sectors, as well as extensive regional expertise, which will significantly help us scale our loan book.

“Philip’s appointment will allow us to expand our presence on the ground in Northern Ireland and his presence will help deploy £120m in committed capital to SME property developers and the Northern Ireland property development market.”

Philip Anderson, manager at Blend Network, added: “I am pleased to be joining Blend at such an exciting time. Blend is a dynamic and forward-thinking organisation with a strong appetite to offer development finance to experienced developers. While there are a number of factors that continue to hinder the supply of new housing stock coming to the market, I am hopeful that by increasing the availability of development finance it will go some way to increase the supply of new homes in Northern Ireland.”