MW Eaglewood-backed Zorin Finance breaks cover

Specialist property lender Zorin Finance funds over £100m loans in past 12 months.

Zorin Finance, a residential development finance specialist, has broken cover after having funded more than £100m in development loans (with a gross development value of over £150m) in just 12 months. The platform is backed by funds managed by MW Eaglewood and Sir John Beckwith’s Pacific Investments, and has been flying almost entirely under the radar up until now.

Zorin, which was founded in 2011, set out to plug the financing gap for small-to-medium sized house builders that had emerged in the wake of big banks pulling back from real estate developments. The technology oriented firm claims to lend faster and more flexibly than its counterparts in the world of banking.

Founder and CEO Luke Townsend (pictured above) kick-started the platform using his own funds and funding from Sir John Beckwith to fund loans, before signing a deal with MW Eaglewood in August of last year. In addition to providing loan capital, MW Eaglewood also acquired a third of the equity in the business. Since finalising the deal, Zorin’s lending volumes have taken off.

“Our lending levels over the past 12 months are proof that small-to-medium sized housebuilders are increasingly looking beyond high street banks for their sources of development funding,” said Townsend.

MW Eaglewood is the manager of P2P Global Investments – the world’s largest marketplace lending focused investment trust, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Zorin is not a marketplace. The platform’s loans are currently funded exclusively by funding from Townsend, Beckwith and MW Eaglewood, and Townsend tells us that he sees skin-in-the-game from management as an important facet of the company.

The platform has now funded the development of 350 new properties. "It is gratifying to know that loans advanced by us will help build over 350 new homes in a market which still has a persistent shortage of supply," said Townsend.