Former Watkin Jones chairman and Countrywide CEO has joined the lender
Development lender Silbury Finance has appointed Grenville Turner (pictured) as chairman.
Turner, who brings over 40 years of experience in the residential real estate and finance sectors, was non-executive chairman of residential for rent developer and manager Watkin Jones Plc until last year.
He also has extensive experience in the investment and property lending sectors, having been chairman of development lender Titlestone Ltd for three years until its sale to Paragon, and was chairman of wealth manager Ascot Lloyd/Bellpenny for six years.
Turner was previously chief executive of Countrywide between 2007 and 2014. Prior to this, he was a founding director of Rightmove and a non-executive director at property portal Zoopla.
In his new role at Silbury Finance, Turner will support founding partners Gavin Eustace and Matthew Pritchard in delivering the next stage of the lender’s growth plans.
“Grenville’s track record launching and running a number of blue-chip residential property and finance businesses speaks for itself,” Eustace commented. “While we are seeing strengthening demand for sustainability-linked, competitively priced senior debt, we are operating against a volatile backdrop, and we look forward to leveraging Grenville’s over 40 years’ experience as we accelerate our growth plans.”
Turner noted that the UK mid-ticket residential lending space was ripe for disruption.
“Gavin and Matthew had the conviction and experience to launch, and subsequently scale, a product offering that is fully aligned with borrower needs,” he added. “This is a rare opportunity to join a dynamic team, running an institutional quality platform in what is a hugely underserved part of the debt market.”
Since its launch in January 2021, Silbury has deployed around £490 million of senior finance across 13 schemes in the UK retirement living and residential sector. The development lender backed by Oaktree Capital Management has enjoyed an especially strong second half of the year, originating around £300 million of new lending.
