United Trust Bank (UTB) has appointed experienced real estate finance professional Piragash Sivanesan as Director – Intermediaries, Property Finance to further develop relationships with brokers and debt advisers operating in the property development and investment market.
Piragash has worked in the property finance sector for over 20 years with banks including NatWest and Lloyds. For the last seven years he has worked on the debt advisory side of the industry, successfully running Totum Finance, a company he founded in 2015. Totum specialised in sourcing and structuring a wide variety of real estate finance solutions for developers, housebuilders and investors operating across the UK.
In his new role with UTB, Piragash will be focused on developing and deepening relationships with brokers and intermediaries serving SME housebuilder, developer and property investor clients operating across England and Wales. He will work across UTB’s Property Development and Structured Property Finance divisions liaising with both teams to identify opportunities for the Bank to increase awareness of its services amongst intermediaries and grow new originations.
Libby Vaughan, who joined UTB’s Business Development and Marketing – Property team in 2021 as part of a data collection and management project, will assist Piragash by providing additional administrative and marketing support.
Although the property industry is facing increasing economic uncertainty, UTB is committed to continuing to support customers with a proven track record of delivering successful developments and investment projects. The Development loan book has continued to grow this year and the specialist lender has now expanded the Property Development Originations team to 28 Property Development Directors and Managers. In addition, last year UTB formed a number of strategic partnerships with Government agencies designed to help housebuilders and developers gain access to competitive, higher geared funding.
The Bank is continuing its expansion of the division with more locally based Property Development Directors and Managers to provide a range of development finance and developer exit solutions. It will also implement technology designed to accelerate and simplify the funding application process for brokers and customers and continue to explore opportunities to develop its offering and establish further strategic alliances.
Upon joining United Trust Bank, Piragash Sivanesan said: “UTB is a long established and well funded retail Bank wholly committed to supporting housebuilders, developers and real estate investors. UTB appreciate the value intermediaries add when helping their clients source property finance for development and investment activities. Now, with economic and political uncertainty the highest it has been for over a decade, UTB believes that by increasing and strengthening ties with experienced advisors there are opportunities to create relationships which will endure the ups and downs of the economic cycle.”
Adam Bovingdon, Head of Property Development at United Trust Bank commented: “Piragash brings a huge amount of experience from both sides of the real estate finance industry and the Property Development and Structured Property Finance teams will benefit from his focus on developing our intermediary relationships.
“We have maintained the momentum from our record year in 2021 and have continued to develop our support of housebuilders and intermediaries across England and Wales. Our loan commitments now support the delivery of around 6000 new homes at any one time and we have the ambition and capability to increase that further. We are looking to continue that growth by increasing and deepening our relationships with brokers specialising in development and real estate investment finance.”