MKB Law is thrilled to sponsor the Developer of the Year category at this year’s Belfast Telegraph Property Awards.

“There is no doubting the fact that trading conditions in the Northern Ireland property market have been tough over the past few years,” says MKB Law Managing Partner Gordon McElroy. “Interest rates, access to funding, infrastructure costs, and labour shortages have collectively created an almost perfect storm in the property development world.

“However, resilience is something that many of our local property developers have in abundance. At MKB Law, our team advises some of the leading local property developers and we have had the pleasure of witnessing such resilience in action on a daily basis.”

Despite the challenging conditions in the wider development market, MKB Law has managed to increase development-related instructions on a year-on-year basis for the past decade and looks forward to some exciting schemes coming to the market in the coming months.

MKB Law’s banking and finance expert Neil Logan asserts that Northern Ireland needs more funders offering development finance. “The funders currently active in the NI market generally provide a decent funding package, despite the fact that rates remain high,” comments Neil. “The problem is that there are not enough of them.

“Of the main pillar banks, we are seeing that only one of them has a genuine appetite for development funding. A select few alternative lenders are picking up the slack. We would certainly hope to see more funders coming into the development finance market over the next 12 months as a result of the much-anticipated interest rate decreases”.

MKB Law are market leaders in the hospitality sector, with Director Maria Conway heading up the firm’s licensing and hospitality division. According to Maria, “The first half of 2024 has seen the conclusion of a number of high-profile deals in the hospitality sector. Perhaps sometimes overlooked in favour of more traditional ‘developers’ some of our more prominent hoteliers and publicans play a vital role in property development in NI.

“As traditional commercial properties struggle to find tenants, it is often the creative genius of people such as Bill Wolsey and Rajesh Rana who are left to breathe life in to these buildings and ultimately our towns and cities across NI.”

“As a first-time category sponsor of the Belfast Telegraph Property Awards, we feel that the awards take on significant importance when market conditions are tough,” continues Gordon. “Without taking anything away from developments completed during boom times, I think we all must tip our hats to the developers who have worked through these challenging times. There is still a massive housing shortage in NI and without continued development we will fall considerably short on delivery.”

MKB Law would like to wish all the applicants for the Developer of the Year award the very best of luck!