The Bristol office of finance group BGF has invested £15.5m in South West property developer Burrington Estates to support its ambitious growth plans in housing and commercial projects.
Exeter-based Burrington’s new homes business has built more than 400 properties worth £120m across the South West since its launch in 2016. 
Its commercial industrial development business was started in 2019 and has two business parks – SkyPark in Exeter, pictured, and Plymouth’s Eurotech Park. Both have received high levels of interest and demand with 80% of units reserved off-plan.
With ambitions to grow both divisions and with a significant pipeline of controlled land to be built out, Burrington sought investment to support its progression to move into the next phase of growth.
The all-Bristol deal was led by BGF’s James Skade, Hannah Waters and Alex Garfitt, advised by Tim Roberts, Isaac Paine of Bristol-headquartered national law firm Burges Salmon and PwC’s Tom Ayerst and Matt Tomlinson (financial due diligence) and Dave Taylor and Paul Halliday (tax).
BGF investor James Skade, pictured, said: “Burrington Estates is a really exciting investment for BGF – as a progressive and forward-thinking property developer, both the residential and commercial divisions are bringing a fresh approach to the sector and have impressive plans for growth. We look forward to being part of that journey.”
Some £13.5m of the investment will support the expansion of Burrington’s new homes division, which has 14 site-starts in the pipeline for the next 12 months across the UK and six sites in development across Devon and Cornwall.
It has also set up a Midlands region with offices in Stratford-upon-Avon and land secured to develop 104 homes.
The focus is to grow the division’s turnover to exceed £200m and increase its number of houses to more than 600 a year within the next five years to take advantage of the positive momentum in the UK residential property market and strong house sales in regional markets.
The remaining £2m from the investment has been allocated to Burrington Estates Commercial to develop business parks in the South West, enabling small companies to acquire their own business units.
Burrington Estates managing director Mark Edworthy said: “BGF’s investment and strategic insight is hugely welcomed in the development of Burrington Estates and is integral to the future success of our organisation.
“We have found real chemistry with the BGF team and look forward to partnering with them and receiving their advice and guidance. We also intend to become a strong player in the BGF community. We already work with three other BGF portfolio companies.”
BGF has strong experience in backing regional developers across the UK & Ireland, with investments in Woodall Homes, Braidwater, Campion Homes, Winterbrook, Apex Housing Group and Cussins – the latter going on to be acquired by Northumberland Estates.
Burrington Estates was advised by Andrew Tubb, Marion Bennett of East of England law firm Birketts and Mark Champion of Exeter-based Isca Ventures.
BGF’s Bristol team last year invested £67m into businesses in 2020, taking its total funding in the South West to more than £377m since it opened in 2011.
