Real estate consultancy Naismiths plans to grow its workforce by 15% over the next 12 months.

The business, which is headquartered in Birmingham, employs 60 employees across the UK. The company is planning to expand its workforce across its national office network following a record year in 2021.

The company is targeting further growth in the regional residential sector, along with the student accommodation and big box industrial sectors.

Naismith, which provides project management, building surveying, project monitoring and asset recovery services, will also complement its recruitment plans by expanding its footprint of eight offices, following the opening of new sites in Exeter and Norwich last October.

The firm landed a £2m term loan and £500,000 revolving credit facility from Shawbrook to enable the the expansion across the UK, and to allow the company’s old shareholders bought-out in 2018 to fully exit the business.

Finance director Ben Harwood said: “We saw record demand from the residential sector last year, driven by people’s changing priorities and residential developers are focusing on meeting the growing demand for housing with more green space.

“Lifestyle changes have also had a significant impact on the industrial sector. A boom in ecommerce has propelled demand for logistics and warehousing accommodation.

“Our business is focused on having a national reach with regional understanding and working with Shawbrook, who have proven themselves to be a flexible and committed funding partner, is enabling us to extend our reach across the UK.

“As we rapidly grow and put our plans into action it is important that we have a trusted funding partner who can support our long-term strategy. With flexible funding that matches our needs and a strong appetite to really get behind our ambitions, we are pleased that Shawbrook is that funding partner.”

Amy Beasley, director in the corporate lending team at Shawbrook Bank, said: “Naismiths have a strong track record and an impressive base of high quality customers. We’ve built a solid relationship with them over a number of years and know they are experts in what they do.”