The footballer has snapped up the Creynolds Lane home, in Shirley, West Midlands for an undisclosed figure.
Alex Neale, Director of Romford Homes, explained how, in May 2013, the site was completely vacant and construction started on two detached houses, one five-bed 3,600 sq ft property and one six-bed 4,100 sq ft property.
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The build on the 110m by 42m site ended in February 2014 and both properties have now been snapped up - one by the footballer and the other by a senior member of the Jaguar Land Rover company.
Alex told B&C, the latter, who has already moved in, is “overjoyed with the property and the level of specification”.
Negotiations at the footballer’s property are ongoing in regards to the installation of a swimming pool in the garden, but Alex recently confirmed at a Regentsmead event that the sale and standard of the properties is turning a few heads, including possible further interest from the footballing community.
Commenting on having two of his properties sold to high-profile figures, Alex said: “It represents good flags in the ground for us with our bespoke developments. The properties have certainly raised a few heads and we have a number of sites going through planning at the moment. We’ve had a good half a dozen enquiries before planning is in place for them, and we’re growing stronger by the day and are hungry to do more.
He added: “The only advertising that we do is for the the purchase of land, so it’s great to get so many recommendations from people showing off their new properties.”
The site cost £425,000 and Romford Homes acquired a £930,300 loan facility from development lender Regentsmead over a 12-month term.
The GDV of the site, which included both of the detached homes, was £1.64 million.
The orignal loan facility was £800,000 but the developer was able to increase this on three occasions to £930, 300.
Alex added: “With some banks, the extension of a facility can cause alarm bells, but not for Regentsmead. If it makes sound sense then they’ll assess it.
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“Regentsmead were very fast, very smooth, and prompt. When you deal with a bank you feel you’re in an endless chain of different relationships, but with James Bloom and his team, they respond at all hours and live and breathe it. We live and breathe what we do so it’s nice to deal with someone like that too.
“Regentsmead is quite sensitive to lending over 50 per cent of the build, but the level of external interest we received for the properties, put them at ease and it was straightforward.”
Before he was in touch with Regentsmead, Alex assumed his bank of choice for several years, Lloyds TSB, would support him with finance for a 14-unit development project near Birmingham.
However, Alex was let down by the bank, which considered its own last-minute valuation of the site to be insufficient. Alex had already put £150,000 into the development and the pot was running low, so he approached Regentsmead with the £600,000 deal.
He then attained the proper financing from Regentsmead in double-quick time and he hasn’t looked back since.
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