Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has appointed Barney Iles as lending director within its development finance division.

Iles (pictured) has over nine years’ experience in the property finance sector and joins HTB from Blend Network, where he was a senior lending manager, leading the origination and execution of residential development investments.

Prior to this role, he was an investment manager in the real estate team of the Ingenious Group, primarily involved in the origination, execution and general management of investments within the sector. This included development, PRS, student, residential and commercial, on both a debt and equity basis.

Before Ingenious, Iles had gained experience across a wide variety of real estate projects at Nationwide Building Society, working in syndicated, subordinated and bilateral finance in both performing and non-performing loan books.
In his new role, Iles is responsible for acquiring new development finance business for HTB and developing client relationships into longer-term partnerships.

Iles said: “I am absolutely delighted to join HTB at such an exciting time as they look to build on their success and grow their loan book. They have an excellent reputation and place a strong focus on delivering first class service.

“Developers and housebuilders need to be able to partner with a lender which has a strong appetite to lend and the funds to back up that desire. Hampshire Trust Bank has both in spades. I am looking forward to utilising my network and experience to ultimately help build more homes!”

Neil Leitch, commercial director – development finance, Hampshire Trust Bank, added: “I’m incredibly pleased to have been able to add someone of Barney’s evident quality to our team. Despite short term economic challenges, the Bank remains firmly committed to supporting SME developers throughout the UK.

“The addition of Barney to the team demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the market and our confidence in the property development sector over the long-term.”