GRE Capital has appointed James Meigh as Head of Origination, joining from Recognise Bank where he led its national origination team, alongside Alex Stephens, who brings 20 years' experience at Santander and RBS. The appointments follow more than £150 million of new lending year to date.
29 September 2026 – GRE Capital, the UK real estate lender, is expanding its origination team with two senior hires who bring decades of experience in leading UK banks as it continues to grow its loan book.
With more than 36 years’ experience at some of the UK’s biggest banks, James Meigh has joined as Head of Origination from Recognise Bank. Over five years, James was responsible for building its northern business development team from scratch before taking on a national role where he led a team of 10, sat on various internal groups including its credit committee, and led the creation of a syndicated lender finance product.
Previously, James worked at Santander UK in its Corporate & Commercial division for 12 years, and held director roles at the Bank of Ireland (UK) and Nationwide Building Society.
Meanwhile, Alex Stephens has joined as Business Development Manager to support the firm’s origination efforts. With over 20 years in commercial and corporate banking and most recently at Recognise Bank, Alex has held a variety of lending, origination, and operational roles at various global banks including Santander and RBS.
Led by James and with significant dry powder available, GRE Capital’s origination team is seeking to rapidly expand its real estate loan book across bridging, structured finance, term debt, and development finance. To support the expansion of its loan book, GRE Capital will continue to recruit across various roles while exploring opportunities to expand into all areas of real estate finance.
In the year to date, GRE Capital has provided more than £150 million across a range of asset classes. Recent transactions include a £15.9 million refinance of a four star boutique hotel in Knightsbridge for its long-standing owner-operator, an £8.5 million loan secured against a newly redeveloped, multi-let Grade A office building in London for a family office and a facility of £3.9 million to a consortium of experienced developers to fund the acquisition and repositioning of a prime mixed-use building on Richmond's high street. The business has provided over £500 million in financing since it was founded in 2020.
GRE Capital is led by founding directors Michael Mirelman and Daniel Benton and has been providing flexible capital to the UK real estate sector since May 2021. Lending against commercial, mixed-use, and residential assets, heavy refurbishment and conversion, ground up development including planning phases, through to stabilisation periods.
James Meigh, Head of Origination at GRE Capital, said: “In a market in which value is increasingly hard to find and absolutely vital to create, a lender that understands real estate beyond the spreadsheets and can provide hands-on support is invaluable. Having known and respected Michael and Daniel for over four years and sharing their central value that strong relationships are at the heart of good deals, I’m thrilled to be working with them and with Alex once again to take on an opportunity that is vast in scale.”
Daniel Benton, Director at GRE Capital, said: “James and Alex bring a collective half century’s worth of banking experience to GRE Capital, providing the energy, the contacts and the firepower we need as we expand ahead of what is going to be a very busy final quarter of the year and an even bigger year ahead.”
