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Close Brothers Property Finance (CBPF) is providing a £38m Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) to Fernham Homes to support delivery of more than 400 new homes in Kent.

The RCF has been specifically tailored to Fernham Homes, who have been a borrower of Close Brothers Property Finance for a decade, with the lender financing almost 240 homes since 2015.

The facility has been structured to support Fernham Homes’ pipeline of residential developments, offering flexibility and speed of drawdown and helping the SME housebuilder to manage cash flow across project stages. This will provide a capital buffer in the event of unforeseen delays and enable the business to take advantage of opportunities to acquire new sites. In a challenging economic environment having access to this capital can help them to navigate volatility whilst moving ahead on developments.

Fernham Homes has already commenced work at Sutton Valence, Faversham and Blean to build out under the new facility and plans to start work at Yalding, Sandwich and Wrotham in 2026, which will finance the private homes within each scheme.

Established for over 25 years, Fernham Homes has delivered more than 250 new homes across Kent and East Sussex in the last five years. A successful growth drive sees the award-winning local housebuilder now with a land pipeline of 3,950 homes across the region with a further 1,500 in the pipeline, along with a 46-strong team of experts having scaled up its headcount almost six-fold since 2022, which started with eight employees.

Paul Radley, Senior Business Development Manager and Chiara Caldwell, Managing Director of Structured Finance, at Close Brothers Property Finance worked with the lender’s credit and underwriting team to curate this tailored loan facility, which is the first multi-site RCF offered by the bank.

Phil Hooper, Chief Executive Officer of Close Brothers Property Finance comments: “For the last 50 years we have always worked to create bespoke solutions for our borrowers, and this revolving facility is a natural evolution of the decade-long partnership between Close Brothers and Fernham Homes. It has been carefully tailored to provide them with the flexibility to accelerate their pipeline and continue building the high-quality homes for which they are renowned. In what is undoubtedly a challenging market, we are proud to support the long-term strategic growth of our clients.”

Sean Ellis, Managing Director of Fernham Homes comments: “This represents a cornerstone for the growth of Fernham Homes, providing the financial certainty and flexibility to enable us to scale up our business with pace and take us from delivering 50 homes per year to our target of over 400 annually in the next five years. We’re thrilled Close Brothers have chosen to pioneer this new RCF with Fernham Homes. It is recognition of our growth trajectory and potential of the business. It’s a true testament not only to the Fernham Homes’ 25-year legacy and track record, but also the credentials of our management team and quality of relationships we build with our stakeholders.

“A solution to one of the key challenges faced by SME housebuilders, highlighted in the Government’s recently announced support initiatives, we also hope it can set a positive example of the potential that can be realised in this sector with access to more affordable, flexible and assured finance.”