Following the announcement of Mark Stephens - former CEO of Allica Bank & Harrods Bank and Founding Partner and Deputy CEO at Aldermore - joining the Board earlier this year, the UK’s leading specialist property project online lending platform CrowdProperty (www.crowdproperty.com) is pleased to announce that Rupert Lowe MRICS has joined the CrowdProperty team as Business Development Manager.
Rupert joins alongside five further Property team appointments so far in 2021 and a total of 21 new appointments in the past 12 months since lockdown 1.0 began (including five appointments who will be joining in the coming months). The significant growth in the team reflects strong origination, lending and business growth through 2020, ever growing applications for property project finance, the huge potential for CrowdProperty’s game-changing ‘property finance by property people’ proposition and a clear strategy to resource the business fully, accompanying the in-house built technology platform, to uphold exceptional customer service.
Rupert brings over 25 years’ experience in the property sector, including establishing his own surveying business providing services to clients such as Taylor Wimpey, Golding Estates and Atticus Land & Development. His previous positions include working at First Title Insurance plc, The SLH Group, Dunlop Heywood, Bellrock and Keppie Massie. Rupert has been heavily involved in business development throughout his career as well as gaining extensive experience in the insolvency field, resulting in an ability to deal with complex and sensitive matters.
Based in Liverpool, Rupert has built an extensive network in the North West and across the UK. His appointment at CrowdProperty marks a period of growth for the Birmingham-based company, providing a local point of contact to further develop relationships with SME developers looking for property project funding in the region.
Andrew Hall, Property Director at CrowdProperty, commented: “We’re delighted to have Rupert joining the CrowdProperty team. His expertise in commercial and business development, together with strong relationships with numerous industry contacts across the UK, will be valuable in enhancing CrowdProperty’s current service offering, future strategy, and the collective expertise of our team.
Rupert’s hands on, ‘front of house’ experience is at the heart of CrowdProperty’s partnership approach - having worked in the industry ourselves, we deeply understand the needs of SME developers. Our hard work has set us on a trajectory to continue growing rapidly - having doubled lending through 2020, surpassing £100m lent, we are firmly on track to provide £400m+ of lending p.a. by 2024.”
Rupert Lowe added: “I am excited to be joining the team as a Business Development Manager given the numerous milestones and accolades achieved at CrowdProperty. There is clearly a huge market to aim at which has faced pains in raising finance for years, which fills me with both excitement and ambition. The market-leading foundation already built at CrowdProperty has certainly made my role easier.
Knowing the speed, ease and total transparency with which the team perform means I can speak to developers with great confidence and knowledge that my highly professional colleagues will take them through the process to provide what they need best, as Property Finance by Property People. I very much look forward to being part of the next stage of growth.”
With over £250m of funding applications received per month, CrowdProperty has added five further new recruits in 2021 to its Property team in order to service demand:
- Max Abbott joins as Assistant Surveyor, having previously worked as an Investment Analyst at Blackfinch Investments
- Josh Thompson takes up the role of Assistant Surveyor, having previously held roles at Thomas Mae and Innova Property
- James Galloway, a former insolvency professional and experienced property developer, joins the team in the role of Property Analyst
- Joe Kershaw has been appointed as Assistant Surveyor, having previously been employed as a Civil Engineer at Mott MacDonald
- Laurie Price has been appointed as Property Liaison Analyst, bringing over 12 years’ experience in the property sector
Michael Bristow, CEO at CrowdProperty, said: “Our expert team of 41 is underpinned by a highly scalable, in-house built, proprietary technology platform, scalable capital sources and deep expertise in exactly the asset class being lent against, capable of funding hundreds of millions each year. We are still only at the start of fulfilling our potential against a mission of unlocking the power of SME property developers in the UK - to build more homes, increase spend in the UK economy and ever more efficiently and effectively match the supply and demand of capital for the benefit of all. One factor is our West Midlands based head office – delivering both structural cost advantage allowing for stronger resourcing of our lending business and access to a strong, less competed and loyal talent pool versus lenders based in London. These factors all underpin our impeccable lending track record, attracting more and more institutional capital sources, further diversifying our capital sources and reliability of lending in any market, as proven through 2020.”
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