The Fund closed on 11th January 2008 having raised approximately £2,400,000.

So far the following projects have been purchase -

Dunton Green near Sevenoaks, Kent - This seven acre site adjoins existing development, has 3.5 acres which is developable now and is very close to a Barratt development completed in the last five years. Atkins, one of our planning consultants, are now progressing the application for inclusion in the Local Development Framework and, in addition, we are also moving ahead with a full planning application for submission in the normal planning process in June 08. We and Atkins believe that this is a good opportunity to get in before a Berkeley Homes 400 unit development achieves planning at appeal.

Eastmoor Lane, Doddington, Cambridgeshire - This project is nearing completion with a completion date of early March 2008. We have rejected a couple of early offers which is £20k per unit over our initially expected asking price as shown in our financial model. This gives us plenty of room for negotiation and means we will increase our expected profits on this project.
These units will be completed virtually to budget, apart from a £6k overspend due to unforeseen additional work required by Anglian Water and some fencing we have decided to renew. There is a slight delay due to bad weather experienced at various times throughout the build.

Due to the high gearing, the Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) of this project is expected to be 102%.

Benwick Cambridgeshire – Having completed the purchase of this site in December 2007 we have now carried out all the necessary Phase I and Phase ll reports on this land which is heavily contaminated. Due to the expected cost of the remedial work we had negotiated a reduction in the selling price to £360,000 (from £460,000). With net remedial costs of some £250,000 this still only represents a price of 22% of the Gross Development Value (GDV) of the site. This is extremely good as normally this would be between 30% and 40%.

We will also receive 150% of all remediation costs as tax relief, which will increase profits and give us an RoCE to 135%, annualised to 60% over 27 months.

Waterloo Road, Southampton – We completed on this project on 24th January 2008. This involves demolition of an existing dwelling and the construction of 12 apartments in Freemantle, close to Southampton city centre. Full planning permission is in place and the demolition will commence sometime in March 2008, with the project expected to last 16 months. Southampton still has a strong market for apartments with other local developments selling out in days.

The RoCE of this project is forecast to be 67%, annualised at 51%.

The gearing achieved through our bankers is exceptional and includes all project costs such as professional fees, bank fees, legal fees etc. with interest rolled up to the end of the project. This means the Return on Capital Employed is much higher than initially anticipated and allows us to use the funds invested to the maximum advantage.

Examples of the returns we expect on the individual projects are outlined here –

Please contact us if you have any enquiries concerning this fund.