Northern Ireland Investment Fund
A £150m revolving fund capitalised by Northern Ireland's Department of Finance, lending £3m to £30m into development, regeneration and low-carbon infrastructure projects in Northern Ireland.
What they do
The Northern Ireland Investment Fund lends against real estate and infrastructure projects located in Northern Ireland, covering regeneration, offices, industrial and logistics, hotels and leisure, build to rent and low-carbon and renewable infrastructure. The fund is managed on the department's behalf by CBRE's lending team, which originates, structures and monitors each loan, and it operates as a gap financier at commercial rather than subsidised terms. Capital recycles as loans repay.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Northern Ireland is thinly served by mainstream UK development lenders, and a fund of this size dedicated to the province fills a gap that a borrower would otherwise have to cross the Irish Sea to fill. Facilities from £3m to £30m cover a whole lower-mid-market project, and the CBRE mandate means the credit conversation is with people who underwrite real estate for a living.
Where they are not the fit
Projects must be in Northern Ireland, without exception. This is project and development finance rather than corporate lending, so a trading company borrowing against earnings has no route here. Grants are not available, and pricing is commercial rather than concessionary.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Developer/sponsor-led real-estate and infrastructure projects (corporate developers and project SPVs)
- Where they lend
- Northern Ireland only (hard regional gate) - projects must be located in GB-NIR
- How they decide
- CBRE Lending team sources, evaluates, structures and monitors on behalf of Northern Ireland Department of Finance; application-form driven; delegated authority or committee cadence not published
- Search funds and ETA
- No published route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers
As published by the lender and last reviewed August 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from Northern Ireland Investment Fund’s own published criteria. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- Northern Ireland projects only - outside Northern Ireland excluded
- Development/regeneration project finance only - not corporate EBITDA cash-flow lending
- No grant funding
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling of £30m is among the 2 highest of the 7 regional and government-anchored funds here.
- It starts higher than all but 0 of them, at £3m.
- Like 6 of the 7, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
Counted across the 7 regional & government-anchored funds in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Northern Ireland Investment Fund write?
Published facilities run £3m to £30m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Northern Ireland Investment Fund lend to search funds or ETA buyers?
Not on the published evidence. Northern Ireland Investment Fund publishes no route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers. A searcher's route to a lender usually runs through the quality of the target and the equity behind it.
Does Northern Ireland Investment Fund lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Northern Ireland Investment Fund lends to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers alike, so a company with no private-equity backer is not out of scope on that ground.
Where does Northern Ireland Investment Fund lend?
Northern Ireland only (hard regional gate) - projects must be located in GB-NIR.
What does Northern Ireland Investment Fund lend?
The published product set is development / regeneration debt. Published sector focus is build to rent, commercial property, hotel, industrial logistics, leisure.
On the record
October 2025: Gronan Wind Farm (9.4MW, County Tyrone) development finance, borrower BSI Wind Ltd, ~£12.9m project, first charge; fund's first low-carbon energy deployment (IPE Real Assets / CBRE press.
Sources: northernirelandinvestmentfund.com
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.