Beaufort Capital, which provides finance for residential developments in London and the South East, has appointed Steven Oliver as Head of Property Finance.

Prior to joining Beaufort, Steven was a Partner and Head of Lending at Alpha Real Capital. Alpha had committed over £400 million to development projects and Steven also oversaw the group’s launch into bridging finance.

Alpha acquired the property fund management arm of Close Brothers, which saw all staff employed at Close, including Steven, who was Deputy Managing Director of Property at the time, join Alpha in February 2011.

Before Alpha, Steven was a Senior Lending Manager for over three years at Abbey.

Steven’s role at Beaufort is to build and grow the lender's origination platform in its key markets of London and the South East through both intermediary and direct channels.

Newly launched Beaufort Capital has a unique range of funding and equity products allowing it to provide mezzanine and equity finance for residential developments between £5 million and £100 million GDV in London and the South East.

The new lender can also provide mezzanine facilities of £1 million to £20 million with the ability to provide equity facilities of £1 million to £5 million.

Beaufort is able to lend on both a first and second legal charge basis and can consider facilities in the mezzanine, equity and senior debt space for their clients, with an ability to provide debt facilities up to 85 per cent of cost or 70 per cent of GDV over terms between 1 - 3 years. The Beaufort equity facility can provide up to 50 per cent of the equity requirement for a scheme when utilised in conjunction with their Mezzanine debt product.

The lender states: “We understand the specialist requirements of today’s development market and can deliver financing at levels that maximise developers’ returns on their capital. Unconstrained by the bureaucracy of some lenders, Beaufort Capital provides swift and versatile financing, at market leading rates, offering a whole funding solution to developers.”

Knightsbridge-based Beaufort currently has a team of four with over 80 years of combined real estate development and finance experience and it is seeking to build long term beneficial relationships with its borrowing partners.