Property Finance

Property Development & Refurbishment

White Rose Finance has been funding development projects for over fifteen years. Structured finance available up to 90% of the overall project costs (site and development costs)

What are the Benefits of

Property Development Finance?

  • Borrow a higher percentage of the project cost

    The ability to borrow a higher percentage of the project cost is often a key benefit for the client with restricted funds. The higher the client’s contribution and experience generally the lower the cost of funds.

  • Roll-up the interest costs

    The ability to roll-up the interest costs over the loan term removes from the client the problem of having to find the costs for the finance until the sale or refinance of the property to cover them.

  • Access to more Lenders

    Most developers only have knowledge of a few funders of development finance generally restricted to their own bank and one or two others. We give you access to a broad range of lending institutions for your developments.

  • Build More Properties

    For the company that specializes in construction of property, borrowing funds allows you to build more properties at the same time than simply a leveraging of your own funds would allow.

What is property development finance?

A property development loan is a commercial short-term loan generally offered in two stages – the site loan (purchase or refinance) and the construction loan. Both elements are secured on the development site in question and the building project as it develops but can also be secured wholly or partially on other residential or commercial property assets owned by the applicant (additional security).

The development loan provides the applicant with the means to complete on the purchase of the site if necessary or to re-finance the site if encumbered to another lender or the site can be used as client contribution if valued sufficiently so the lender just funds the build costs.

Once the development or refurbishment program commences, funds are made available to be drawn down at agreed stages to assist with the development, refurbishment or conversion costs associated with the project.

Property development mortgages can only be put into place on an asset that already has planning permission for the construction phase – if planning is not in place, then a bridging loan can be offered to buy the land but at a low LTV.

What funding structures are available?

  • Senior Debt

    A standard development facility provided by a lender and secured on a first ranking legal charge over the development site.

  • Mezzanine Debt

    Generally expensive top up debt ranking on a 2nd ranking legal charge behind the senior debt and provided by a small number of specialist mezzanine lenders.

  • Stretched Senior Debt

    A blend of senior debt and mezzanine debt but provided by the same lender, this allows the lender to make an advance to a higher level and charge a higher rate or an increased exit fee paid on redemption of the loan.

  • 100% Funding

    Technically a lender provides all the funding necessary to acquire the development site and build out to completion, these advances are offered when the borrower can provide acceptable additional collateral security to the lender over and above the development site itself.

  • Joint Venture (JV) lending

    A small number of lenders will offer to partner with an experienced developer on attractive high demand residential schemes providing 100% of the entire project costs. There are various ways that JV schemes can be structured including debt, equity share, inflated exit fees and a combination of all. However, structured the lender will generally be looking for a share of the profits in the scheme up to 50%

Taking you from Agreement in Principle to Draw down of Funds

Unlike other brokers, we have a genuine breadth of funders that range from high street banks to challenger banks, specialist lenders, P2P funders and high net worth individuals. We can advise you on structuring your project in the right way to secure finance and provide you with the right forms to show your experience.

In turn, our experienced team will work with you to make sure the absolute strongest possible presentation gets put to the lenders to increase your chance of success, and if needs be, accompany you to the lender meetings that can often prove crucial to ensuring your project is funded.

Unlike other brokers we don’t leave you at that point but work with you throughout the lending and legal due diligence to make sure that any deadline for starting work gets met. Each project has its own pitfalls but we understand where the pressure points are with each lender and how to speed the process and minimise the stresses that these applications can cause.

We can lend our own money or discuss your project with over 30 funders, lending money now throughout the UK.

In addition to funding the simpler ground-up single dwellings the practice specialises in more complex cases such as:

  1. Clients with minimal experience.
  2. Developments where part of the site will be kept for personal use and part sold on (or held) for investment.
  3. Modern methods of construction and eco-builds.
  4. Projects where the majority of the client contribution comes from a planning gain
  5. Joint Ventures and investor led developments.
  6. Lending with multiple lenders – senior debt and mezzanine funding.
  7. Funding for sites that have stalled or have encountered cost over-runs.

We're Proud to Fund Exciting Local Projects

With the knowledge that comes from being a principle funder of local development projects, we will bring this expertise to bear on your project by canvassing the whole of the market and obtaining the best cost of finance for your project.

Whole-of-Market Development Specialists

  • New build single unit to multi-unit schemes
  • Phased Developments
  • Major refurbishments and Permitted Developments
  • Partially Completed Schemes
  • FCA Regulated self-build projects

Contact Us

White Rose Finance are experienced finance and mortgage brokers, we are based in Selby, North Yorkshire and service customers UK-wide.

For a free initial consultation please get in touch and one of our advisors will be in touch to discuss your requirements.