Assetz Capital has appointed Ciaran McGivern as relationship director for Northern Ireland following growth of its developer client base.

The specialist property development lender has provided £152m of property lending to the region focusing on residential development projects, office to residential refurbishment schemes and commercial mortgages.

McGivern brings over 25 years’ experience of property development and specialist lending support. Recently McGivern has taken up a voluntary non-executive directorship on the board of Grove Housing Association in North Belfast.

McGivern said: “The opportunity to fill the gap in the NI development funding market is substantial and given Assetz track record to date, this is something I am excited to help scale. Housebuilding continues to be a priority across the region, and we recognise the importance of funding SME developers to meet this demand and drive growth. I look forward to engaging with our NI customer base and property professionals to help them fund their next scheme.”

Andrew Fraser, chief commercial officer at Assetz Capital, added: “Northern Ireland continues to be a good market for our traditional housebuilder customers and brokers. We have funded the construction of over 740 houses in the region and supported the local market through the CBILS loan scheme providing £29m to developers locally in NI alone. With Ciaran now back with the team in NI, we wish to push towards that £200m milestone of lending in NI.

Our focus remains on providing SME developers access to affordable and flexible development funding up to 70% loan to value.”