Residential Development · Investment Debt · Bridging
From multi-unit ground-up developments to high-rise towers and premium single units — we structure and place debt for residential developers and investors across the UK, whole-of-market, principal-grade.
Senior and stretch-senior finance for multi-unit residential developments — from boutique blocks to larger phased programmes.
Structured finance for PBSA schemes and build-to-rent towers — calibrated against income profiles and covenant headroom.
Finance for premium single units, penthouses and luxury apartments — calibrated to depth at the top end of the market.
Multi-phase regeneration schemes combining residential with commercial elements — funding structured through phased delivery.
Services
Senior, stretch-senior and mezzanine for ground-up residential, mixed-use and regeneration schemes — structured against realistic build programmes and sales assumptions.
Term facilities for income-producing residential assets — acquisitions, refinances and portfolio restructures, priced against real income profiles with covenant headroom that holds.
Fast, clean short-term capital where timing is the deal — arranged with the exit defined before the loan completes, not after.
Track record
Ground-up PBSA on a long-held industrial site. Acquisition bridge arranged against an expiring option in the post-referendum liquidity freeze, then funded through a structure new to the UK student sector — institutional pension capital acquiring a c.£20m, 45-year ground-lease income strip, capital released from golden brick, freehold reverting to the sponsor at term end — alongside a c.£16m debt facility completing the stack. Completed for the 2019 academic year under a national operator; 93% occupancy within six weeks of launch.
Acquired out of receivership as an excavated basement consented for a pioneering modular scheme — a proprietary, factory-fabricated design no competing purchaser could inherit. Bridge arranged at a significant discount, capital partner introduced under a JV, and 100% of the c.£8.4m development requirement structured without senior debt: maximum loan-to-GDV first charge on site, cross-collateralised against the partner’s performing London asset.
A stalled boutique-hotel development in a high-profile historic setting: £3m spent on basement excavation, senior debt with a clearing bank in recovery. Re-planned hotel-to-residential, consent secured for 12 apartments, c.£4.7m development finance arranged to refinance and build. An 18-month workout — substantial six-figure debt write-down negotiated from the incumbent bank, and retrospective sign-off secured on a bespoke sheet-piling design after the original contractor’s insolvency: the point that unlocked the settlement.
A c.70-bed specialist dementia operation across two period conversions on one road in a prime district. The original 34-bed home traded profitably and was nearly ungeared; a single c.£3.7m facility discharged the residual debt and funded acquisition and conversion of a neighbouring property — doubling capacity, financed against trading EBITDA rather than bricks.
Five boutique dementia homes, each c.15 beds, viable only as a cluster — one staff pool across five sites within walking distance. Virtually ungeared; refinanced through a major Irish bank to release development equity, funding the operator’s expansion to a consented coastal site.
Refinance of a speculative commercial building pre-let on a long lease to a national university tenant ahead of completion. The incumbent facility was cross-collateralised across two unrelated assets, blocking a sale; maximum gearing raised against a consented strategic site to unlock the structure and release the investment for disposal.
A c.£6.5m super-prime scheme refinanced out of a development facility approaching default rate — mid-works, with a defective lift shaft and a contested down-valuation. Valuation challenged and revaluation obtained; two-year facilities secured to allow an orderly sale.
Advisory — the deals that don’t happen
Some of the most valuable work never reaches a funding line: schemes independently re-appraised, found unviable, and stopped or redesigned before the loss was incurred.
Instructed alongside a major agency to review a 100%-studio scheme purchased on indicative massing and a supporting appraisal from a national firm — into a market where competing stock ran at up to 60% vacancy. Independent re-appraisal showed a deep loss; the consented strategy was abandoned and the scheme ultimately delivered as private rented apartments.
A 14-storey studio scheme near a major station that could not be built at viable cost. Architect change and re-brief advised; experienced development partners introduced. Original scheme refused at committee and dismissed at appeal; the redesigned c.330-bed scheme was consented — described by the council’s own officers as the better design — before delivery was overtaken by the pandemic.
Residential — selected schemes
14 executive homes — £3.2m development facility against £10m GDV. Repeat group client.
14 stone-built three-bed bungalows — one of nine schemes for the same regional housebuilder.
Individual six-bed detached — €2.7m development loan against €3.6m GDV.
Three townhouses, a four-bed detached and six apartments — GDV c.€1.85m.
Six-unit conversion scheme — fully funded land and build.
Six-unit scheme — residual appraisal, structured facility.
Client and scheme identities withheld. Detailed transaction sheet and client references available to qualified counterparties under NDA.
About
Masters Corporate is deliberately small. Every mandate is run personally, at principal grade, by an advisor with seventeen-plus years in residential development finance and distressed debt.
Independent since 2008 — forged in the hardest credit market in living memory. Every deal since has been structured by someone who has seen what happens when structures fail: contingency that is actually sufficient, covenants with genuine headroom, exits stress-tested before the term sheet is signed.
Coverage is whole-of-market — clearing and challenger banks, debt funds, private credit and family offices. No panels, no volume targets, no placing deals where the commission is best rather than where the terms are.
Structures arranged span forward-funding, ground-rent structures, senior debt, mezzanine debt, preferred equity, development exit, bridging and restructuring.
Contact
Send the outline — site, units, GDV, timescale — and you will get a straight view on structure and appetite. If it does not stack, you will hear that too.