Arc & Co. and GB Bank have completed three major buy-to-let (BTL) transactions totalling £19.5 million over the past three months.
The deals, led by Nikita Nigai (pictured), head of international at Arc & Co., span prime London real estate and multi-unit developments across the South East, and underscored GB Bank’s growing appetite for large and non-standard residential lending.
The largest transaction, a £13.5m refinance of a £20m Primrose Hill property, enabled a foreign ultra-high-net-worth client to refinance £10m of private bank debt while releasing equity to reinvest in their portfolio.
The 5-year, 67% loan-to-value (LTV) facility combined fixed and variable rates and took 18 months of structuring and lender engagement to complete.
A second deal saw £3.5m arranged for 19 apartments in Kent, all leased to the local council on a fixed annual premium basis.
The third facility, worth £2.5m, supported the purchase of seven apartments in a new-build Wembley development.
Nigai said: “Each of these deals presented significant hurdles — cross-border complexities, absent tenancy documentation, valuation challenges, and extreme time pressure, and yet completing £19.5 million across the three transactions in as many months demonstrates Arc & Co.’s ability to structure and execute complex residential finance where conventional lending parameters simply don’t apply.
“The £13.5m Primrose Hill refinance required 18 months of engagement, including identifying the right lender and navigating intricate underwriting processes to achieve Private Bank rates at high LTV without AUM requirements. The Wembley transaction involved managing a down-valuation, postponed completions, and imminent default risk.
“Our expertise lies in understanding which lenders can accommodate specific complexity and how to structure transactions to align borrower needs with lender appetite. GB Bank’s flexibility as a relatively new entrant has been instrumental, and these completions reflect our ability to deliver solutions for clients that high street lenders and traditional private banks cannot serve.”
