Investec appoints head of real estate

Mark Bladon joined the private bank in 2006 and most recently led the high growth corporate real estate lending business.

Investec appoints head of real estate

Investec has appointed Mark Bladonas head of real estate.

Bladon joined the private bank in 2006 and most recently led the high growth corporate real estate lending business.

Prior to this, he spent 12 years at Singer & Friedlander Plc where his roles included credit officer with responsibility for real estate.

Bladon replaces Gary Dobson, who is retiring after 32 years at the bank and 10 years as head of real estate.

Ryan Tholet, head of Investec, said: “Mark is a highly experienced financier who since joining Investec has established himself and Investec as the lending partner of choice for a number of leading global investors.

“Furthermore, his deep understanding of the UK living sector has underpinned the team’s market leading position providing PBSA funding and as we look to replicate this success in other sectors and expand our real estate capabilities, this track record will be invaluable.

“We would like to both recognise and thank Gary for his many years of service that have been instrumental in building the Real Estate platform into what it is today.

“As a core part of this history, we believe Mark is the ideal person to deliver on the next stage of our growth strategy here, continuing what has gone before as well as helping us break ground in key new initiatives.”

Bladon added: “This is an exciting time for Investec.

"Despite the challenges faced in 2020, we continued to fund a range of borrowers, ranging from high net worth property entrepreneurs through to global institutions, benefitting from the strength of the relationships that we have built up over 25 years of operation.

“With a strong foothold in our key markets, the support of the wider bank, coupled with the vaccine rollout underway and favourable real estate fundamentals, we are bullish for the year ahead.

“In particular we see a real opportunity in the market to grow our distribution capabilities, allowing us to take on larger and more complicated deals on behalf of our clients.

“We also hope to further establish our credentials in the living sector, especially growing our build-to-rent exposure, a sector which has displayed its resilience over the past 12 months, as well as increasing our exposure to logistics.”