Member Article

New residential scheme in Romford to go ahead following £3.4m loan

A new residential development in Romford is to proceed after developers Equitable Properties, who are part of the Morphuse Group, completed a debt finance deal with OakNorth.

The scheme will see the construction firm acquire and redevelop Equitable House at 88-100 South Street, with plans to convert unused office space at the building into 18 studio apartments and refurbish the nine two and three-bedroom flats already housed within the property.

Equitable House also currently contains two takeaway restaurants, a casino, newsagents and Specsavers, and sits close to popular retail and entertainment facilities in the East London town.

Equitable Properties is headed up by Oded Bar and Elad Farkash, who founded the business in North London back in 2006, with a focus on multi-million pound redevelopment projects.

In a statement, Oded and Elad said that they were ‘delighted’ to have completed the loan and they were confident the new development would prove popular with Londoners in an ‘increasingly desirable’ area in the capital.

They stated: “With its central location and proximity to shops, restaurants, the cinema and the train station, we have no doubt that Equitable House will prove popular amongst buyers in the area.

“The fact that we managed to secure the finance we need in just one week is pretty incredible and we really appreciate the time OakNorth put in to ensure this happened.”

The quick turnaround for the financing package from OakNorth came after they were introduced to the deal by Brotherton Real Estate, something which the bank said separates its from traditional big banks and lenders.

OakNorth’s Head of Debt Finance, Ben Barbanel, and Debt Finance Director, Surinder Sidhu, said: “This is yet another example of how different OakNorth is to traditional lenders – the borrower needed the capital within a week and we were able to complete the entire transaction, from first meeting to disbursement of cash, within this time frame.

“It’s great to be closing another deal with Brotherton Real Estate and we look forward to seeing how the development of Equitable House progresses.”