BLEND Network, a fast-growing peer-to-peer property lending platform, is bolstering its regional lending to small-and-medium-sized property developers with the appointment of two new lending professionals.

The new hires will help BLEND Network better serve its clients and foster new borrower relationships while also enhancing its due diligence capability for the benefit of its lenders. The announcement follows the appointment of senior property professional Paul Watson as Head of Origination in January.

Despite ongoing economic uncertainty as a result of Brexit, BLEND Network, which successfully closed a £10m funding round at the end of last year with commitments from a number of leading global business figures, continues to see increasing demand for its development loans. The business has a strong regional presence providing development loans of between £150k and £3m to small-and-medium-sized property developers looking to do new builds, office to residential conversion, refurbishments and HMOs across the UK regions.

Following its £10m funding round that saw high net worth investors including Cyrus Ardalan, former Vice Chairman of Barclays and current Chairman of OakNorth Bank and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, the Family Office of former CEO and current Chairman of Publicis Group Maurice Levy and Jean-Phillipe Blochet, co-founder of Brevan Howard, one of the leading “macro hedge funds” which at its peak had $40bn in assets under management, Blend Network is aggressively expanding its lending team and scaling its origination arm in order to deploy funds to support experienced property developers across the UK.

Daniel Netzer, who joins as Lending Manager and has a 10-year track record of working across residential and commercial property sales and asset management, including experience in distressed assets, fund management of residential income portfolios, new acquisitions, and development management. He also brings significant experience of the property market outside of London, which fits well with BLEND Network’s core strategy of focusing its lending in the regions, particularly in the North of England, directing funds to small-and-medium-sized affordable housing developers in these areas, which are typically overlooked by mainstream lenders. Daniel began his career as a research analyst at Marble Bar Asset Management and holds a BSc in Mathematics, an MSc in Finance and an MSc in Computing Science from Imperial College London.

Morgan Sparrow joins as Lending Associate and brings in strong marketing and sales experience to the team having previously worked for leading property recruitment consultant firm GKR. He holds a BSc in Real Estate Management from Oxford Brookes University with internship experiences at JLL and CBRE.

Their arrival will help the company better serve its existing clients, as well as accelerate the acquisition of new borrowers, while also enhancing its due diligence capability for the benefit of its lenders. Daniel’s and Morgan’s appointments come at an exciting time for the business and follows the company’s recent appointment of senior property professional Paul Watson as Head of Origination and the successful completion of a £10m funding round.

BLEND Network is a peer-to-peer property lending platform which allows lenders to invest in property-secured loans. Private lenders are able to co-invest from £1,000 with very sophisticated high net worth lenders in the same deal, in a move that is leading to the increasing ‘democratisation’ of investing.

The business’s platform has delivered double digits returns to investors whilst also channelling money into affordable housing where there is a recognised lack of funding.Blend Network has already lent £6m to 22 projects across Northern Ireland, Scotland and the North of England, with 0 defaults and an average fixed return of 11.86% p.a.

Yann Murciano, CEO at Blend Network commented:

“Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, we continue to see incredible demand from very experienced property developers who are looking to build more affordable homes in high-growth pockets across the country. Yet unfortunately most high-street banks have been retrenching from development finance, leaving those small-and-medium-sized property developers under-serviced.

“We are delighted to welcome Daniel and Morgan to our growing lending team. They both have a breadth and depth of experience across real estate sectors as well as extensive sales and business development expertise, which will significantly help us scale our deal pipeline. Their appointment will help us accelerate the acquisition of new borrowers as well as enhance our origination capabilities to service existing customers on the platform.”