Record month and £43m hat trick of February deals for HREF

Established in 2023, the firm has quickly risen to become one of the leaders in the larger bridge loan space between £3m and £100m, where traditional lenders have retreated in recent years. 

“A record month in Q1 on the back of such a strong maiden year is a great start to 2025 and speaks to the volume of good deals we are seeing with high quality assets to lend against, both in London and especially in regions right across the UK,” commented Max Lewis, HREF Chief Investment Officer. 

The three February deals include lending secured against a block of serviced apartments and a block of high-end residential apartments, an 83-unit residential development and a 74-bed hotel. 

“There is a very strong pipeline of £15m - £30m lending opportunities and as we grow our team in regions right across the UK we aim to deploy over £300m of our own capital in 2025. Having certainty of our own funds is proving to be advantageous at a time when getting deals over the line against working assets that are intertwined with valuable businesses is a challenge for some of the established lending models,” he added. 

Jamie Jolly, who joined HREF in February to drive growth and access to the lender regionally, commented: “The appetite for borrowing from a pragmatic lending partner, who can swiftly value assets and businesses together in sometimes unusual or complex structures, is clearly very strong above the £3m deal size.

“Market uncertainty globally, coupled with higher interest rates than a decade ago, have seen more urgent needs to leverage assets and borrow more as well. We are gearing up to be very responsive, and open to less straightforward deals, as long as the quality of the security stacks up.”   

HREF was launched to provide tailored, flexible property finance nationwide across various real estate sectors and capital structures, offering short term bridging loans for growth, acquisition opportunities, development exits and refinancing exits ranging from £3m to over £100m.  

The lender has grown quickly to become one the UK’s most active specialist bridge lenders. It recently completed its first deal in Ireland and continues to target growth, aiming to expand its loan book significantly in 2025 across all real estate sectors in the UK. 

The lender is a fully integrated subsidiary of Hilco Global (Hilco), the multi-national financial services group with more than $5bn of assets under management.