Property Finance

Preface to Part Two

The core skills required in the field of property finance – taken in its broad sense to include both the financing and marketing of real estate as well as the securitization of real estate and rental income receivables – are common to all professional operators, irrespective of where a real estate loan is applied for or granted.

The authors of this study have taken this fact as their starting point: from the identification of the borrower to the various stages of due diligence for structured financing; from the specific loan drawdown arrangements to repayment plans; from issues relating to loan syndication to forms of “direct” participation by the lender in the business risk associated with the loan through hybrid financing. In this context, it is instructive that the largest specialist operators often have a significant local presence, as part of their constant and on-going quest for the ideal mix between financial return and risk, which is evidently dependent upon the optimization of investment portfolios and the individual propensity for risk.

Leaving aside for one moment the fact that, from a strictly technical point of view, core skills are identical, it is clear that the formalities associated with structured financing cannot occur in isolation from the legal framework. The relevance of the statutory framework is not strictly limited to the regulation of the contractual instrument of choice. It is indeed indispensable that a close examination of the various ...