Gary Connolly began his financial services career in banking, transitioned to funds management with a strong focus on property and has recently become Head of Investments at HoldenCAPITAL Partners.
Gary Connolly, Head of Investments at HoldenCAPITAL Partners, spoke to WILLIAMS MEDIA about HCP’s niche in the non-bank lending sector, their investment opportunities and his outlook for the Brisbane property market.
You’re Head of Investments at HoldenCAPITAL Partners. What does your role involve?
It’s a fairly broad role which is great, I’m involved in the whole process from the initial loan application, loan review, presenting the opportunity to our investors via an IM through to the loan settlement. My attention then turns to keeping our investors updated on a regular basis until the loan has been repaid.
Can you tell us what you did before you moved to HoldenCAPITAL Partners?
I’ve been in the financial services industry for the past 12 years, specifically in the banking and funds management sectors. I most recently spent eight years with Trilogy Funds Management as their Business Development Manager and before that I worked for Citigroup and Deutsche Bank in key account management roles.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I really enjoy speaking to and meeting our investors. It’s great to hear about how they made/are making their money. Our wholesale investors are generally business owners, property developers, property professionals and SMSF trustees. It’s really rewarding to deal with people who are being pro-active with their investment portfolios and being able to offer them a variety of options to consider from first mortgages, second mortgages through to preferred equity.
Tell us a bit more about the HoldenCAPITAL Partners business.
HoldenCAPITAL Partners (HC Partners) is a loan manager, born out of the commercial brokerage firm, HoldenCAPITAL (HC), which was founded in 2011 and has been awarded Australia’s #1 Commercial Brokerage Firm for the last three years running. HC Partners obtained its Australian Financial Services Licence in 2015 and commenced investment and lending activities.
HC Partners provides qualified sophisticated investors with the opportunity to access the attractive returns available from investing in commercial property loans and equity opportunities sourced by HC.
A major discussion item in recent years has been APRAs increased regulation of the banks which has made achieving funding much harder for developers. How does HoldenCAPITAL help?
There’s been a major shift. Two or three years ago HoldenCAPITAL were doing 75 per cent of their business with the banks and 25 per cent with non-banks. Over the last year that split has essentially been reversed, with over 70 per cent of our business now being done with non-banks.
HoldenCAPITAL Partners focuses on the Brisbane property market. - What’s your outlook for the Brisbane market for the next 18 months?
We fund a large number of projects in Brisbane, but we definitely aren’t Brisbane centric. We have offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and are active in most states. In fact, we have recently funded projects in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
In terms of the Brisbane market, we see it being generally steady for the residential sector with gentle growth on the back of slightly improved net interstate migration predictions driven by modest employment growth. Beyond the next 18 months is difficult to predict but our expectation is for a relatively stable market with the key being location relative to infrastructure.
Where do you live now, and what would be your dream home if you could live anywhere in the world?
My wife and I have actually just built our dream home in Camp Hill. It was plain sailing for the most part, but we’re happy it’s over. We have no plans to move again for a long time! We’re both originally from Ireland but love living in Brisbane.
This is a sponsored article.
Read more from HoldenCAPITAL on The Real Estate Conversation:
Experience matters: HoldenCAPITAL
State of play in construction finance: HoldenCAPITAL
New HoldenCAPITAL report describes non-bank funding landscape