Atelier Capital Partners has had made two appointments to its credit team.

Former head of property finance at Bank Leumi UK, Alasdair Houghton has been appointed head of credit at Atelier. He will work with Atelier’s director of origination, Martin Gilsenan, to identify and fund a pipeline of residential development opportunities.

During his 12 years at Leumi, Houghton arranged development finance for a large network of UK and international investors. He said: “I’ve watched Atelier with interest since it burst onto the market almost 18 months ago, and am delighted to be joining as it dials up its lending appetite further.

“Atelier combines the speed and agility of a start-up with the thoroughness and institutional-grade lending capacity of a bank, and we in the credit team pride ourselves on being nimble and transparent. We’re keen to lend, and while we’re not afraid to say no if a deal is not right for us, when we choose to lend it’s the start of a lasting partnership, not a transaction.”

Houghton will be supported in his role by senior investment manager, Paul Hayward, who joins Atelier from the private bank Hampden & Co, where as banking director he built and maintained close relationships with a number of high net worth clients.

Graham Emmett, Atelier Capital Partners’ co-founder, added: “These are exciting times at Atelier. We recently sealed partnerships with a trio of leading financial institutions, including the international asset manager M&G Investments and the UK-based Paragon Bank, and have also securitised a tranche of our loan assets – enabling us to deploy our capital more efficiently and flexibly.

“Our credit team is central to the successful deployment of that financial firepower. It’s a team with a diverse range of backgrounds, from private banking to structured and short-term property finance. All of them are experts in their field, and all are committed to providing forward-thinking residential developers with a personal service and personalised solutions.”