Business loans for property developers

Ardent Capital Group brings the same method to every client: execution and strategy, clear advice for smart lending, and long-term growth. That means the right lender, structure and timing, straight advice so you borrow with confidence, and today's deal built toward where you want to be tomorrow. We are specialists in helping business owners secure finance to purchase their own property, and we understand the complex structures that often sit around it, including multiple trusts, holding companies and self-managed super funds. Through that work we also understand what the business needs from its cash flow, and where an overdraft or line of credit fits for working capital. Development businesses get read badly by generalist credit desks, which see irregular income and existing project debt and stop there rather than reading the settlement pipeline behind both. We know which of the 60 plus bank and non-bank lenders assess a developer properly, and we arrange the project finance alongside the business facility so the two do not compete for the same security. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

No, and keeping them separate is the point. Project finance is written against the end value and the total cost of a specific development and repaid from the sale, and our property development finance section covers it. This page is funding for the development business itself: the overheads, the consultants and the site costs that a project facility will not touch. Most established developers carry both.

Yes, and it is one of the clearest reasons a developer needs a business facility. Town planners, architects, engineers, surveyors and application fees are paid long before any project lender will look at the site. Because the site is producing nothing at that stage, the funding is assessed on your trading and your asset position rather than on the project. Whether those costs can later be recovered into the project facility depends on the lender.

It varies more than almost anything else in business lending. Some credit teams read a settlement pipeline as income and are comfortable with a twelve or twenty four month gap; others see irregular revenue and go no further. That variation is why the lender you are taken to matters more here than the numbers themselves. Send us your pipeline and we will tell you how it reads.

It can, which is why the two are arranged with each other in mind. A project lender assesses your total exposure and your available security, so a business facility secured over a site you intend to develop creates a problem later. Where possible we keep the business facility unsecured or secured against property outside the projects, so the sites stay clear.

Yes. Option fees and deposits are short dated and specific, and they suit a facility structured the same way, repaid or absorbed once the project funding settles. Where you already hold land with equity in it, that equity is usually the cheaper source. Where you do not, a shorter unsecured facility carries the commitment.

Yes. Rates, land tax, insurance and interest on a site held before construction are real costs that produce no income, particularly where a determination is taking longer than expected. They can be funded on the business rather than absorbed from cash, and where the land has equity, that is generally the most economical route.

Not necessarily, and often you should not. Unsecured facilities are advanced on trading strength alone, which leaves your sites unencumbered and available for project finance, where the security is needed most. Unsecured limits are smaller and price higher, which is the trade. Directors guarantees are standard either way.

Frequently yes. A decline on a development business is often a sector or income-shape position rather than a judgement on your numbers, and another lender may read the same file entirely differently. Send us the decline and the financials behind it and we will tell you plainly where it sits and which lenders would look at it.

Yes. Buying the premises you work from is a commercial mortgage rather than a business loan, and we arrange both. Our office and professional services commercial mortgage services cover offices and professional premises, and our light industrial and workshop property loans cover yards and storage.

That is a common timing problem in development, because the liability and the settlement rarely line up. A short term facility or a drawdown against an existing limit covers it so it is paid on time. Dealing with it before it becomes a payment plan keeps more lenders available to you on the next project.

Unsecured and low-doc facilities commonly settle within 24 hours to a week through the non-bank panel. A secured term facility with a valuation and full legals runs one to three weeks through a major. If a consultant deadline or an option expiry is driving the timing, tell us at the start and we will work backward from it.

For most facilities, your last two years of financials, recent BAS lodgements and three to six months of bank statements. For a development business we also want your settlement pipeline, a schedule of the sites you hold and the debt against them, and details of any existing project facilities. Low-doc options assessed on BAS and statements alone are available.

Most of the time, no. Where a deal requires significant preparation due to its complexity, a small mandate fee may apply, and we will always be upfront about this before any work begins.

Although we are based in Sydney, we service clients across all major Australian cities, including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart, along with their surrounding regional areas. Wherever your business operates, we can arrange your finance.

Although our main speciality is property loans for business owners, such as an office property loan for your development business, we also assist with site vehicle and equipment finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers site vehicles, survey equipment and office fit-out. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry the business between settlements and to cover holding costs on sites awaiting determination.

No. Arranging finance and advising on financial products are two different disciplines, and we do the first. What we bring is the credit analysis lenders require, the structuring of the facility, and the strategy for putting your application in front of lenders whose appetite matches it.

Because we act as a credit representative under an Australian Credit Licence, we do not give financial product, superannuation, taxation or legal advice, and nothing we provide should be taken as such. Where your circumstances need that input, we are happy to work with your accountant, financial adviser and solicitor to understand the full picture before anything is submitted.

The information on this page is general in nature and does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs.