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Relationship Director Toby Burgess recently joined Paragon’s Development Finance team and has hit the ground running with his first deal in Birmingham. In the latest of our ‘Five minutes with…’ series, we catch up with Toby to discuss his background and how he sees the market in 2021.
graduated from Edinburgh University with a maths degree and initially started out my career as a teacher. However, I quickly left teaching and moved into the financial world and now have 10 years’ finance experience, of which seven have been in residential development.
My last role was with Wellesley Finance PLC in their lending team, which was fantastic experience both in financing some hugely successful developments for great clients, but also in managing some legacy loans where developments had not gone to plan. Towards the end of last year, the chance arose to join the growing Paragon Development Finance team. The team are incredibly experienced and the bank has shown great confidence in the sector by backing the team’s rapid expansion over the past 12 months.
I love the mix of the theoretical and the practical. I enjoy getting my head into a spreadsheet and structuring a complex loan. However, it is that mixed with the ability to put boots on and head out to site and meet with a client and see a development coming out of the ground which makes development finance such a great job.
While I look at lots of different types of development, recently I have found myself working on more flatted developments and also office to residential conversions. I see the latter as something that we may see more of as older offices are repurposed, giving people the opportunity to live closer to town centres.
Elevate is a fantastic developer which has built up a great brand, initially in Birmingham and now further afield. The deal was to finance their acquisition and conversion of Priory House, which had previously been a forensics laboratory, to create 79 apartments in Birmingham’s southside. There were a couple of legal nuances in the deal which required us to structure the loan slightly differently and it is testament to our lawyers, Hill Dickinson, and our credit team at Paragon that we were able to negotiate all the issues to a successful conclusion, enabling Elevate to meet their contract completion date.
I suspect we will see continuing price rises in suburban locations as families move further afield, seeking more space and greenery. Most employers have now adjusted, where they can, to more flexible working which makes longer commutes more acceptable. Despite the upheaval of the past 12 months, I still think town and city centre accommodation will continue to find a market for those that want city living, there may just be a flight to quality and better-located developments.
I love sports and used to play a fair amount of tennis and rugby, plus I’m am a keen skier (when allowed to do such things). Since the arrival of my daughter 15 months ago (and due to the restrictions), I have not played sport for some time and think I may use it as an excuse to hang up my rugby boots at least. I purchased a set of golf clubs a couple of years ago and so might try and actually learn to use them now.
Head officeParagon51 Homer RoadSolihullWest MidlandsB91 3QJ
Paragon Bank PLC is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registered in England number 05390593. Registered office 51 Homer Road, Solihull, West Midlands B91 3QJ. Paragon Bank PLC is registered on the Financial Services Register under the firm reference number 604551