Where CapitalMeets Ground
Inside the M25 and a few miles beyond it. Three partners who put their own capital in first, contractors on our own books, and twenty-eight investors who all have a mobile number that answers.
18
Years building in London
One city, and not one mile further.
Everything Build Blackwood owns is within an hour of the Marlow Yard office. That is a constraint we chose and it is the reason the model works. We know which streets let and which do not, which of the three borough planning teams will accept what, and which groundworker turns up in February.
National developers cannot know that, and national developers are consequently not our competition on the sites we buy. The schemes are too small for their overhead and too particular for their standard house types.
It also means the partners can be on any site inside ninety minutes, which is how a problem gets found in the week it happens rather than the quarter it happens.
Three names,own capital first.
No position is taken to the register unless all three partners have committed their own capital to it on the same terms as yours.
Julian Blackwood
Managing partner · AcquisitionsEighteen years buying land in London, most of it from the same eleven agents. Signs nothing he has not walked.
Priya Raman
Partner · UnderwritingChartered surveyor. Prices every scheme from first principles and has talked the other two out of more deals than she has approved.
Marcus Odell
Partner · DeliveryRuns the site teams and the contractor book. Twenty-two years on site before he ever sat in an office.
Fees, carry and
who gets paid when.
Set out here because it is the question every investor asks third and should ask first.
Partner capital first
The three partners commit between ten and twenty per cent of the equity on every position, on identical terms. We are first in and last out.
A 1.5% acquisition fee
Charged once, on completion of purchase, against the acquisition price. It covers the appraisal work on the eleven or so sites we rejected to find that one.
No annual management fee
There is no 2% on assets under management. If a scheme takes fifty-one months instead of thirty-one, that costs us as well as you.
20% carry above 8%
We take a fifth of the profit above an 8% annual hurdle. Below the hurdle we take nothing beyond the acquisition fee.
Investor capital returned first
On exit, drawn capital returns to investors in full before any carry is calculated. In eighteen years that has happened on every exited scheme.
Blackwood House, Marlow Yard
Blackwood House, 14 Marlow Yard
London EC2A
By appointment only
invest@buildblackwood.co.uk
+44 20 7946 0318
Mon–Thu, 9am–6pm
Twenty-eight, and slowly
The register is closed most of the year and grows by two or three names when it opens. Everyone on it was introduced by someone already on it, or by a professional adviser we have worked with for years.
Minimum commitment is £50,000 per position. Investors must certify themselves as high net worth or sophisticated before any promotion is issued, that is a regulatory requirement and we do not work around it.