Apartment development finance and property development loans

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. On an apartment project the presale position and the read on your builder are what separate one lender from the next, and neither is published anywhere. We work through both with you before the file goes anywhere.

It is sized against the gross realisable value of the finished apartments, net of GST, and against the total cost to build them. Lenders write to a share of each and lend the lesser of the two. Major banks reach up to 65% of gross realisable value and non-bank lenders up to 70%, against up to 80% and 85% of total development cost respectively. We arrange development finance from $50,000 to $30 million.

Often some, and the level varies widely by lender rather than following one market rule. Expectations are generally higher on an apartment building than on a small townhouse project, but part of the panel weights the feasibility, the builder and the location more heavily than cover. That is why the presale position you already have is worth testing across the panel before you plan a longer campaign around a single answer.

Class 2 is the National Construction Code classification for a building of separate dwellings above or beside one another, which is what an apartment building is. In New South Wales it brings the Design and Building Practitioners regime, so designs are declared and lodged by registered practitioners. For your finance it mainly affects the programme and how closely the lender looks at your builder, so the term is written with the full timeline in it.

The building form rather than the dwelling count. A townhouse or duplex project is dwellings on a site, commonly Class 1a, and it can be funded with lighter presale expectations. An apartment project is one Class 2 building with the compliance regime that carries. If your project is two to ten separate dwellings, our townhouse and duplex development finance page is the closer fit.

No, and our range is set out plainly. We arrange development finance from $50,000 to $30 million, which covers boutique and low-rise buildings well and stops short of high-rise and mid-rise towers. If your project sits above that, you need an institutional development desk rather than us, and we will tell you that at the first conversation rather than after a valuation.

Yes. Where the site is approved or shovel ready, the purchase and the construction can sit under one facility with one valuation and no refinance in between. Where the site has no consent yet, the land is usually funded first through a land acquisition facility and the construction funding follows once the approval is granted.

Usually not. Interest during construction is normally capitalised, meaning it is added to the facility rather than paid monthly, because the project produces no income while it is being built. That is standard on development facilities and it is one of the clearest differences from a standard home loan.

Frequently because construction sits outside what that particular lender writes rather than because of anything in your project. Some lenders list construction as unacceptable security outright, and most major bank development teams are set up for projects well above this size. Development is funded by a different lender panel from commercial mortgages, and matching a project to that panel is the work.

Commonly 12 to 24 months, set against the build programme plus a realistic allowance for the occupation certificate, strata registration and the settlement period. Setting the term to the build alone is the common error on apartment projects, because nothing settles until registration, and that tail is where a short term becomes a problem.

That is an ordinary end of project position and there is a facility built for it. Once the apartments are complete and titled, the remaining stock moves onto a residual stock facility, which repays the construction lender and holds the balance while it sells. Where the construction debt matures before the building is finished selling, development exit finance covers the same ground.

Enough that the project still works if costs move, which is the real point of the test. What matters as much as the headline margin is the contingency behind it and whether the building contract is genuinely fixed price. Send us your feasibility and we will tell you how it will read to the panel before it goes to anyone.

On a Class 2 project, considerably. The lender is relying on the building reaching occupation certificate, so it looks at the builder's capability, their history on similar work and their capacity to carry the job alongside anything else they have running. A builder the panel knows is genuinely worth something on an apartment file.

The development consent, the construction certificate where it has issued, the fixed price building contract, your feasibility, the contract of sale or title for the site, a quantity surveyor report where one exists, details of your builder, and any presale contracts. We can give you an indicative position from the consent and the feasibility alone.

Most of the time, no. Where a project 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 project is located, we can arrange your finance.

Although our main speciality is property loans for business owners, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers the plant and vehicles a building business runs, from excavators and scaffolding to site utilities and work vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry a project between drawdowns, to cover holding costs, and to pay consultants ahead of the next site.

Yes, and it is one of the more common steps we assist with. Moving from a townhouse project to a Class 2 building changes the compliance regime, the builder test and the settlement timing rather than the fundamentals of the funding, and each of those is straightforward once you know it is coming. We will walk you through what the panel will want to see, what the presale question looks like at your size and how the term should be set, before you commit to anything.

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.