Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has agreed a £7.2m residential development finance facility to support an airspace project above an existing mixed-use building in Wood Green, north London.
The 20-month facility will fund a three-storey upward extension, delivering nine new homes above the current three-storey structure. The project will increase the total number of residential units from 13 to 22 while retaining the ground-floor commercial space, which an established national retailer occupies under a long-term lease.
The building sits within walking distance of Turnpike Lane Underground Station in a well-connected Zone 3 location. The scheme combines established rental income from the commercial unit with new housing delivery in an area with strong transport links.
Planning permission for the extension was granted in October 2025. Structural reinforcement works had already been completed and signed off before the lender provided funding.
Design plans also include sustainability upgrades to the property, including:
green roof space
heat pumps
solar panels
improvements to the existing building fabric
The borrower is an experienced London developer with a track record in complex urban projects. Lucy Waters, managing director at Aria Finance, introduced the transaction.
The project required a revised funding structure at a key point in the scheme. The borrower needed to refinance an existing lender while continuing development works above an occupied building.
HTB structured the facility across two lending products to deliver the required day-one refinance without additional security. Rental income from the commercial unit supports debt servicing, while the development element sits within a fully funded structure designed to protect delivery.
Once construction completes, the borrower plans to retain the asset and refinance onto longer-term investment funding through HTB’s specialist mortgages division.
The deal also establishes a new working relationship between HTB’s development finance team and an existing customer of the bank, expanding the broader relationship.
Alexia Evans, lending director at HTB, led the transaction with support from relationship managers Olivia Emmett and Elysia Walters, alongside business development manager Scott Apps. Colliers provided valuation services, Project & Building Consultancy acted as monitoring surveyor, and Glovers advised on legal matters.
"This was a scheme where structure and timing were equally critical," said Alexia Evans, lending director at Hampshire Trust Bank (pictured). "We needed to deliver a full refinance while protecting the development above occupied space and maintaining momentum on site."
"By restructuring the funding across two products, we were able to meet the borrower’s day-one refinance requirement without introducing additional security or compromising risk discipline. That clarity of structure is essential when funding complex urban schemes."
"This transaction required a lender able to engage fully with the commercial structure and timing pressures involved," said Lucy Waters, managing director at Aria Finance. "HTB worked decisively and collaboratively throughout, ensuring the refinance completed smoothly while the development progressed as planned."
"In established London locations, new housing is increasingly delivered through intensification rather than expansion," said Neil Leitch, managing director of development finance at HTB. "Airspace schemes test capital discipline as much as construction capability.
"They demand funding structures that recognise live income and constrained sites while maintaining clear risk parameters. Providing that certainty is where specialist development finance continues to add real value."
