FW Capital expands its North East Property team

Fund manager FW Capital has expanded its North East Property team with the appointment of Graeme Watson as Senior Property Investment Executive. This signals the firm’s ongoing commitment to invest in its North East team who play a key role in helping the region’s property developers access funding.

Graeme is an experienced finance professional having worked previously at Handelsbanken for 11 years and prior to this he spent 27 years at Barclays across the Corporate, Commercial and Retail Banking teams. In his new role at FW Capital Graeme will be responsible for supporting 

local developers access investment through the North East Property Fund, North East Commercial Property Investment Fund and the Teesside Flexible Investment Fund. This includes delivering finance for residential and commercial projects across Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and Teesside.

Graeme Watson, Senior Property Investment Executive at FW Capital said: "I’m really excited to be working with the team at FW Capital and helping local developers with much needed finance. Assisting smaller scale house builders to deliver new homes across the North East is so important and through the Funds we have available we can meet the growing demand. With my banking background I bring extensive lending experience and I’m looking forward to working with businesses throughout the full journey – from the building coming out the ground to achieving sales and completion. This is one of the key strengths of the FW Capital proposition.”

Chris Dixon, Fund Manager of the North East Property Team at FW Capital, added: "Graeme is well known across the North East professional community and he’s a fantastic addition to our team. His appointment continues to affirm our growing capabilities for clients who will benefit from his standout experience across commercial lending. Graeme joins a team, which is going from strength to strength. We’re committed to developing our team and attracting new talent to keep pace with the growth of our clients and increased demand for funding.” 

The £35million North East Commercial Investment Property Fund, offers loans with a maximum loan facility of £7million Grade A commercial developments in Tyne & Wear, Northumberland, and County Durham. The North East Property Fund provides loans from £250,000 up to £2million for residential and non-speculative commercial developments in Tyne & Wear, Northumberland, and County Durham. Both are managed by FW Capital and backed by the North East Combined Authority.

The Teesside Flexible Investment Fund is a £20million fund to support economic development in Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees through a mix of finance to support buying a business, property funding and bond finance. It is backed by investment from FW Capital and The Teesside Pension Fund and delivers loans of £100,000 to £3million to enterprises making an economic impact in Teesside.