Schaffhausen · Switzerland Member of the allswiss group
What we do Who we serve Transactions Team Contact →
01 — Context

When the bank cannot refinance any more.

Since the post-2022 rate environment and the tightening of bank lending criteria, portfolio holders and developers across Europe increasingly face a simple problem: the term loan matures, the property has not lost value, but the bank wants significantly more equity — or will not refinance at all.

Residential portfolio · Germany

Refinance through the capital market — not a new bank.

For portfolios of EUR 20 million and above, the capital market is frequently a more efficient source of senior debt than the bank market — particularly for objects where the bank's internal rating has deteriorated despite stable fundamentals.

SH structures the financing through a bankruptcy-remote Fin-Co that issues notes to institutional investors. The borrower retains full ownership of the real asset and the operating control. Only the financing layer changes.

This applies equally to single-object financings, multi-object portfolios, and residential or commercial development pipelines requiring follow-on financing beyond the construction loan.

02 — Who we serve

Four borrower profiles.

01

Property holding companies

Holders of yielding commercial or residential portfolios seeking term financing above EUR 20 million. Typical use cases: refinancing maturing bank loans, restructuring fragmented lending into one facility, releasing equity for further acquisitions.

02

Project developers

Developers requiring follow-on financing after construction completion, bridging to stabilisation and exit. LMA-standard documentation with flexible prepayment for sale-down scenarios.

03

Family offices

Family offices holding large property portfolios looking for financing structures outside the traditional bank relationship — for confidentiality, for scale, or to preserve other banking capacity for trading and investment.

04

Owner-operators

Owners of commercial property used in their own business operations — office headquarters, production facilities, hotels. Sale-and-leaseback structures and mortgage-backed structures both possible.

03 — What we finance

Eligible collateral types.

Residential

Multifamily portfolios

Apartment blocks, purpose-built rental housing, student residences. Stabilised yielding portfolios or those with identifiable lease-up trajectory.

Commercial

Office & retail

Prime and secondary office properties with strong covenant tenants. Retail — particularly food-anchored neighbourhood retail, not discretionary shopping centres.

Operational

Hospitality & care

Hotels with experienced operators, care facilities with defined operating agreements, student accommodation. Operator covenant critical.

Specialist

Logistics & industrial

Logistics properties with long-term leases to credit tenants, light industrial portfolios with diversified tenancy.

Mixed-use

Hybrid portfolios

Cross-asset portfolios combining several of the above. Single Fin-Co structure can finance heterogeneous collateral where the pool is large enough for diversification.

Development

Stabilisation financing

Follow-on financing post construction completion, bridging to full lease-up or to programmatic exit. Not greenfield development finance.

04 — Indicative terms

What a typical financing looks like.

Minimum volume
> EUR 20 m
per transaction
LTV / LTC
65–85%
quality-dependent
Tenor
up to 7 yrs
fixed-rate options
Pricing
90–450 bps
above base rate

Structures are non-recourse to the borrower's wider group. Documentation follows LMA standards. Pricing is determined by transaction quality — LTV, tenant profile, location, amortisation — and current capital market conditions, not by internal bank relationship pricing.

05 — Process

From enquiry
to loan disbursement.

Weeks 1–2
Preliminary review and indicative term sheet

We receive portfolio data under NDA, run preliminary credit analysis, and issue an indicative term sheet including LTV, tenor, expected pricing range and key conditions. No fee payable at this stage.

Weeks 3–4
Mandate and detailed structuring

If the indicative terms are acceptable, we move to mandate. Appointment of valuer, legal counsel, and tax advisor where cross-border. Structure finalisation: Fin-Co jurisdiction, hedging, reserve accounts, covenants.

Weeks 5–10
Due diligence and documentation

Third-party valuation, technical and environmental due diligence where applicable, legal due diligence on title and existing encumbrances. Drafting of LMA loan agreement, security documentation, and — if capital-market issuance — prospectus.

Weeks 11–13
Credit committee and placement

Internal credit committee approval, investor marketing for the corresponding notes, pricing and allocation. Simultaneous closing of loan and note issuance.

Week 14
Disbursement

Loan funds flow to the Asset-Co against security transfer. Existing bank financing released, mortgage certificates assigned to the security agent for the benefit of bondholders.