Land and development deals are generally inaccessible to many investors because of the large deal sizes, the specialised knowledge and the time needed to bring them to fruition.

The Orion Property Development Fund aims to open up property development opportunities to the wider investment community.

According to Liberty's managing director, Ian Lawrie, "The fund represents a uniquely different opportunity for investors to participate in a series of property development projects across the UK and Northern Ireland's major cities and towns, thereby profiting from the potential returns that land and property development has to offer. This fund follows Liberty's previous Crystal property development fund, which was launched last year to focus on similar land-development deals in Ireland and is already showing positive results to investors lucky enough to participate in it."

The Orion fund is raising a minimum of Euro35m (maximum of Euro60m) and will run for a maximum period of seven years with the intention to start unwinding the fund after five years. The fund is now open and will close on Saturday 23 March 2007 or when Euro60m is invested in the fund. The minimum investment is Euro100,000 and the maximum is Euro1.5m.

"Our initial activity will focus on those areas with excellent growth prospects over the next three to five years - including London and the southeast, the northwest, Scotland and Northern Ireland - and in these areas the management team plan to immediately progress on five projects with a varied asset class and liquidity cycle, " says Jim Osborne, managing director of Castleway Orion.

Castleway Orion Limited, a subsidiary of Castleway Developments, has been established to invest in commercial, industrial, residential and mixed-used development opportunities across the UK and Northern Ireland, on behalf of the fund.

The fund's management team will acquire, manage, deliver and dispose of development opportunities and investment properties during the investment term, for the benefit of the funds investors.