Investec appoints a new head of real estate

Mark Bladon, new Head of Real Estate at Investec

Investec has appointed Mark Bladon as Head of Real Estate as the provider of residential and commercial finance targets further loan book growth in the living and industrial sectors.

Bladon joined Investec in 2006 and most recently led the high growth corporate real estate lending business, including establishing Investec’s market leading position funding both domestic and international PBSA developers. Since the start of 2015, Investec has committed to over £820 million in the sector, financing more than 19,500 beds across 24 university cities.

In the last nine months of 2020 alone Investec lent £400 million across the private and corporate real estate market, growing its exposure to the structurally supported purpose built student accommodation (“PBSA”), residential for sale and rent, office and logistics sectors. 

‘This is an exciting time for Investec’, said Bladon. ‘Despite the challenges faced in 2020, we continued to fund a range of borrowers, ranging from high net worth property entrepreneurs through to global institutions, benefitting from the strength of the relationships that we have built up over 25 years of operation’.

Investec is bullish for the year ahead, thanks to a combination of factors: its strong foothold in its key markets, the support of the wider bank, the vaccine rollout underway and favourable real estate fundamentals.

‘We also hope to further establish our credentials in the Living sector, especially growing our Build-to-Rent exposure, a sector which has displayed its resilience over the past 12 months, as well as increasing our exposure to logistics’, Bladon said.

Under his leadership, Investec in 2021 will also grow its distribution capabilities, leveraging its deep sector expertise to partner with third party lenders seeking exposure to the attractive returns available from the high growth UK real estate sector. The strength of Investec’s counterparty relationships has seen it coordinate over £250 million of syndicated real estate debt finance to date.

Reflecting evolving client needs, Investec will continue to offer alternative funding options, such as equity funding, usually alongside senior debt; portfolio lending to include both investment and development risk; and NAV facilities for fund clients in partnership with the Investec Fund Solutions team.

Bladon replaces Gary Dobson, who is retiring after 32 years at the bank and ten years as Head of Real Estate.

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