Castle Trust has revealed that the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector could be a “natural extension” to what it may offer in the future.
The specialist lender — which currently only focuses on the residential sector — offers bespoke development finance solutions on a first charge basis.
Simon Whitfield, head of development at Castle Trust (pictured above), highlighted the student housing market as a potential “medium-term aim” in an exclusive interview with Development Finance Today.
“I can envisage [Castle Trust], in the medium term, maybe wanting to look at student housing, but right now it’s exclusively [focusing on] the residential market.
“There is an increasing demand for student accommodation and improving some of the existing stock of housing for students.
“While [this] market is quite well served by various funders, it’s actually a natural extension in the medium term to what we might offer.”
Castle Trust recently revamped its development finance offering after appointing Simon to his current role, who stated it was aiming to maintain its involvement in the “very important” residential sector.
“…We’re prepared to work with borrowers over the long term to make sure that houses are built for the UK [population].
“Clearly, the government wants houses built [as] Homes England has a very clear mandate to assist the government with its aim of building a lot of houses going forward, and we want to form part of that very important sector.”
Matt Lenzie Founder of Commercial Mortgages Broker said: “this is an interesting approach from the Castle Trust team, they are clearly focusing on areas which potentially have more resilience in a downturn and student accommodation can provide that hedge in the future. Castle Trust continue to offer several products each of which has unique features.”