OakNorth Bank – the UK bank powered by OakNorth – has provided an £11.4m property development finance facility to Ocea, one of the UK’s leading developers which specialises in commercial to residential property conversions.
The finance will be used to convert Furness House, a four-storey office block with 74 accompanying car parking spaces, into 71 residential units, compromising of 66 one bedroom and five two bedroom flats. The site, situated just 500 meters away from Redhill town centre, is also a short walk to Redhill train station, offering regular trains to both London Victoria and London Bridge in less than 35 minutes, with Gatwick Airport being only a 20 minute drive away.
Founded in April 2017 and situated in Southampton, Ocea has an extensive track record in converting commercial properties to residential units, led by experienced Directors, Justine Curtis and Glenn Delve. Previous projects include converting Normandy House in Hemel Hempstead into a five-storey apartment building, consisting of 39 one and two-bedroom units, as well as converting Hampton House in Southampton into 30 apartments, split between city-pads, one-bed and two-bedroomed flats. However, this is Ocea’s largest project to date.
Founded in April 2017 and situated in Southampton, Ocea has an extensive track record in converting commercial properties to residential units
Glenn Delve, Director at Ocea, said: “With plenty of local amenities on offer, as well as excellent transport links to and from London, the Surrey town of Redhill is extremely popular amongst families, young professionals and downsizers. Furthermore, the majority of units on offer in Furness House will qualify for the help to buy scheme, making them ideal for the first-time buyer market.
“We’re delighted to be partnering with OakNorth on what is our largest project to date – the team are extremely well-versed in the property sector and were able to structure a facility that suits our needs.”
Damien Hughes, Senior Director, Property Finance at OakNorth, commented: “This development will bring some much needed new homes to a highly popular commuter town. Given Justine’s and Glenn’s vast experience in the property development sector and their speciality of developing commercial sites to residential units, Ocea is the perfect developer to take on the project. We look forward to working with them and the wider team at Ocea on additional schemes in the future.”
The announcement follows OakNorth’s $440 million investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund and the Clermont Group in February at which time Rishi Khosla, co-founder of OakNorth Holdings, said:
“We have a relentless focus on helping small and medium sizes businesses across the world that are in growth mode access better financing to fund their development. These businesses are the backbone of economies and communities, as evidenced by the thousands of new homes and jobs created from the loans we’ve done so far.”
