Cohort Capital provided a £20 million senior loan secured against a prime luxury serviced apartment building in Soho.

The 24-month bridging facility refinanced an existing private bank loan and provided additional equity release to support the borrower’s wider business activities. The facility gives the sponsor time to arrange longer-term debt while retaining flexibility to pursue future opportunities.

The primary exit is a refinance onto a senior development facility. 

The facility is secured against the freehold of 37 Golden Square, Soho, a 27,125 sq ft luxury serviced apartment building arranged over eight floors.

The property comprises 22 serviced apartments, including a triplex penthouse spanning the sixth to eighth floors. The penthouse benefits from two private terraces and dedicated lift access.

Acquired by the sponsor in 2015, the building subsequently underwent a comprehensive redevelopment. It continues to demonstrate strong operational performance, supported by institutional-quality management.

The borrower was a high-net-worth individual with an established track record in property investment and development.

A refinancing was required after the incumbent private bank determined that the asset no longer met its lending criteria, despite its strong operational performance. This reflects a wider trend across the UK debt market, with some private banks tightening lending policies, increasing minimum assets-under-management requirements and retrenching from operational real estate.

Cohort Capital understood the operational nature of the asset, the strength of its underlying performance and the sponsor’s wider business plan.

Our ability to assess operational real estate and provide certainty of execution enabled us to structure a flexible 24-month facility within a clear timeframe. The refinancing provided the borrower with additional capital while creating sufficient time to secure appropriate long-term debt.

The transaction also reflects Cohort’s growing focus on serviced apartments and hospitality assets, where specialist underwriting expertise can help experienced sponsors unlock value from professionally managed, income-producing real estate.

“Increasingly, we are seeing private banks step away from high-quality assets because their lending criteria have changed or because they’re focusing lending on clients with larger assets under management. This dynamic is generating significant demand for gap capital among experienced borrowers looking for certainty at refinancing, despite owning assets that are performing strongly.

“Serviced apartments and hospitality assets have demonstrated strong fundamentals and are managed by increasingly sophisticated operators. At the same time, parts of the traditional buy-to-let market are becoming more challenging as regulation evolves, creating opportunities for professionally managed operational assets.

“This is an area where we expect to deploy significantly more capital over the coming years, recognising that underwriting operational real estate requires specialist expertise to properly evaluate underlying performance and forward business plans.”

Matt Thame — Co-Founder and CEO of Cohort Capital

“The building has continued to perform strongly. Our refinancing requirement wasn’t driven by the fundamentals of the asset, but by a change in our existing lender’s lending policy.

“Cohort understood both the operational nature of the asset and our long-term business plan from the outset. They moved quickly, provided certainty of execution and structured a facility that gives us the flexibility to continue growing the business while we secure longer-term financing.”

Borrower Representative