Silbury Finance, the development lender backed by Oaktree Capital Management, has appointed Grenville Turner as chairman.

Turner (pictured), who brings over 40 years of experience in the residential real estate and finance sectors, will support founding partners Gavin Eustace and Matthew Pritchard in delivering on the next stage of Silbury’s growth plans.

Until last year, Turner was non-executive chairman of Watkin Jones Plc, the residential for rent developer and manager. He has extensive experience in the investment and property lending sectors, having been chairman of development lender Titlestone Ltd for three years until its sale to Paragon and was chairman of wealth manager Ascot Lloyd/Bellpenny for six years.

Turner was previously chief executive of Countrywide between 2007 and 2014, guiding it through the successful IPO in 2013. Prior to this he was a founding director of Rightmove and a non-executive director at property portal, Zoopla.

Eustace said: “Grenville’s track record launching and running a number of blue-chip residential property and finance businesses speaks for itself. Whilst we are seeing strengthening demand for sustainability-linked, competitively priced senior debt, we are operating against a volatile backdrop, and we look forward to leveraging Grenville’s over 40 years’ experience as we accelerate our growth plans.”

Turner added: “The UK mid-ticket residential lending space was ripe for disruption, and Gavin and Matthew had the conviction and experience to launch, and subsequently scale, a product offering that is fully aligned with borrower needs. This is a rare opportunity to join a dynamic team, running an institutional quality platform in what is a hugely underserved part of the debt market.”