Though lenders will usually only consider familiar forms of property to secure finance on, some will take a view on even the strangest structures if the deal makes sense.

B&C heard from Malcolm Scanlon, Head of Lending at Niche Financial Services, who told us more about a deal which used a security with a difference…

The site involved is located in Warwickshire, and consists of a large, 119-acre plot of land which was most recently used to house a conference, training and meeting centre.

The main complex itself provided two conference rooms, 45 training rooms and 138 bedrooms for delegates.

Within the wider grounds, there were four tenancies on residential cottages, along with separate plots of lands - used as fields for pasture - and woodland areas.

As it stood, the site was valued at being worth £2.5 million. The client bought it on the basis that planning will be obtained to then see the site significantly developed, creating 63 new units and refurbishing some of the current builds to create 80 units in total.

From my point of view, we knew that we needed a lender that would not concentrate solely on their core business within London, and one that would have enough confidence in our client to take on the challenges of such a large site.

We made contact with Goldentree Financial Services, who are based in Warrington, who seemed keen to take the deal on.

A site visit was conducted quickly and Goldentree agreed terms almost immediately, using the client’s previous valuation from when they purchased the site along with his own due diligence.

As such, a deal for a net advance of £1.2 million was completed on a very short timescale, allowing the borrower to get his developments underway.

I cannot praise the team at Goldentree enough for their slick service and flexibility in putting this deal together.

Speaking about the deal, Joanne Parr, Business Development Manager at Goldentree Financial Services, said: “This proved a difficult deal to fund and one which few other funders would be able to do. At Goldentree, however, we like this kind of deal and we delivered a loan which was exactly in line with the indicative terms we put out.”