Landmark raises £10m ‘war chest’

Landmark Investments Group said it has £10m available for acquisitions of residential and commercial ground rents following a refinance with Royal Bank of Scotland.

Landmark recently sold part of its portfolio for £6m at a 3% yield to an offshore buyer. The proceeds were put towards new bank facilities, arranged by Cowgill Holloway Property & Construction, to secure funding from RBS.

Mark Hawthorn, director of Landmark, said: "The recent sale coupled with the new facility means we now have £10m of stock and the same again for new acquisitions. We are seeing a lot of opportunities around the creation of commercial ground rents and the new facilities will allow us to acquire a lot of stock in a relatively short period of time.

"Raising finance is still a challenge but Dave Rainford from Cowgill Holloway, who worked with me on this, is a former banker with an intricate understanding of the banks and he made the whole process very smooth."

Dave Rainford, property finance director, Cowgill Holloway, said: "We've worked with Mark for several years now and I am very pleased we've been able to raise this finance which will help him to grow his business over the next few years. While finance is still tough to come by for a lot of people in the property sector, the deal with RBS shows there's opportunities out there."

Bolton-based Landmark was set up 2000 by Mark Hawthorn. The main area of activity is the purchase of residential and commercial ground rents.