It was announced today that Finance Ireland, Ireland’s largest non-bank lender, has provided over €65 million in finance for over 40 different commercial property transactions since it entered the market in early 2016. 
 
The company, which recently secured a number of major institutional investors, says it is on target to provide over €100 million in commercial mortgages this year and is currently lending approximately €10m a month. 
 
Finance Ireland Group is a diversified financial services business active in commercial mortgage lending, auto finance, leasing and agri-finance. It is a privately owned business with a significant minority investment by major Irish and international institutional investors. The specialist lender, which was established in 2002 is headquartered in Ballsbridge Dublin 4 and employs 100 people.
 
While Finance Ireland Group can lend up to €10m, they have a particular focus on loans of between €1 million and €5 million and their typical Loan to Value (LTV) is 75%. They completed over 40 loans to date across the main property sectors - retail, office, industrial and residential (BTL).  

The bulk of the lending (85%) is to support projects in urban areas (Greater Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick) with the remainder (15%) used to support projects in provincial centres.
 
Commenting on the figures, MD of the Commercial Mortgages division, Ken Murnaghan said, "We are experiencing strong market momentum at the moment. We doubled our size in Q1 with regard to both customer and team numbers. Billions of euro worth of investment property loans are financed/refinanced annually so there are a lot of opportunities in the market."

He added, "International loan funds remain active and we are an important part of the story on how they exit the market and how borrowers rebuild their businesses with a new lender." 
 
Source: www.businessworld.ie