LEADING UK BROKER FOR
Property Development Loans
LEADING UK
BROKER
FOR BRIDGING
LOANS
SINCE 2004
We arrange property development finance for commercial clients who need creativity, flexibility and integrity from their broker. Whatever your project, or the purpose of your loan, Tiger Financial can help.
Tiger Financial is one of the UK’s leading property development brokers. We work with a huge range of providers and lenders to help our clients access suitable development loans at the best rates.
Since 2004, we’ve helped hundreds of property developers gain access to affordable loans to grab new opportunities.
We’re fast and flexible, connecting borrowers with property finance that powers projects and increases profit.
Access property development loans
We’re a leading development finance broker that focuses on providing the best rates, responsive service and total reliability.
Our strength lies in our ability to provide industry-leading, innovative and bespoke business finance. Our trained, experienced and professional brokers will work on your behalf to connect you to commercial providers who can finance your project.
We’ve support clients to gain access to funding for residential and commercial property projects.
Every Tiger Financial customer benefits from:
-
Access to a panel of over 200 development finance lenders
-
·Expert insight, experience, support and guidance through the property finance process
-
Single point of support from initial enquiry to decision
-
Rapid response to each application
-
Flexible approach and easy application process
-
Exclusive rate deals and market-leading lending rates
-
Competitive arrangement fee
We offer borrowers access to a range of options, including:
- Senior development funding
- Mezzanine finance
- Hybrid stretched senior development finance
- Bridging loans to acquire the land, or change planning
- Development exit finance
The amount you can borrow varies, on several factors, including:
-
Your creditworthiness (credit score)
-
Business plan
-
Investment strategy
Every lender has its own criteria for assessing the strength of each application. As a tried and trusted development broker, we specialise in matching borrowers with lenders.
Our support gives you the best chance of accessing fast and flexible funding at the best borrowing rates.
Property finance, perfected
We add value by identifying and sourcing bespoke property development finance packages from our exclusive network of lenders.
Customers benefit from our in-depth industry knowledge and wide professional network of support.
Before connecting you with a property development finance provider, we learn about you, your business, plans and expected profits before creating a connection.
We keep your specific requirements at the forefront of every stage of the process, ensuring your finance application stands a realistic chance of success. We can support you to complete the fundings pack.
While we can’t guarantee success, our support, guidance and investment in the process give you the highest chance of success at securing the money you need for your property development project.
We can arrange an extensive range of property development finance solutions, including:
- 90% loan to cost stretched senior; keep all profit
- 100% development finance with profit share
- Mezzanine finance up to 75% LTGDV
- Hybrid mezzanine/equity for higher LTV’s
- JV/Equity to sit on top of senior debt
- Bridging loans for acquisition
- Development exit bridging loan
- No PG/Company debenture option
- Venture capital for planning gain plays
- Normal development at 70% land cost plus 100% build
- New-developer start-up funding
Residential development loans
We have had significant success in supporting our customers and clients to access residential development loans for property.
Residential property loans can be used by a developer to:
- Renovate individual residential units
- Update several properties
- Build new residential developments
- Add to their property portfolio
When applying for residential property development finance, there are eight key areas that lenders will take into consideration:
- Borrower profile, experience and circumstances
- Project feasibility
- Project gross development value (GDV)
- Project building costs (construction cost)
- Total development costs
- Planning status
- Current cash or equity available contribute to the scheme
- Land purchase price
Before offering to finance property development, lenders will use the information you provide to decide whether to provide finance and on what terms (including total loan value, interest rate and repayment terms). It will help them identify the most appropriate product for each property project.
In some cases, providers will request a personal guarantee or debenture before lending (although in some cases, this isn’t required).
Whatever your experience and status, it’s crucial that you work with a professional broker who can help you to select the most appropriate lender and present your application in the strongest possible way.
At Tiger Financial we can support you to access residential development loans, including:
- Total UK coverage (including Northern Ireland)
- Maximum LTC: up to 90%
- Minimum loan value: £100k
- Maximum loan-to-gross-development-value (LTGDV): up to 75%
- Maximum Loan: none
- Rates: from 4.99% PA
- Loan term: up to 48 months +
- No personal guarantee or debenture options
Contact us today to discuss your residential loan requirements.
Commercial development loans
Commercial development loans are used by professional developers, property development companies and contractors to support their projects. Suitable borrowers can access millions in funding for the right project.
There are many different types of commercial development project that finance may be required, including:
- Office blocks
- Hotels
- Care homes
- Warehouses
Commercial loan providers will spend time understanding the feasibility of projects and the strength of the borrower and their business plan before deciding whether to agree to a loan.
They’ll assess potential property value, rental income and other factors before arriving at their decisions. Due to the size of most loans, they’re assessed on a case-by-case basis and lending criteria can, and does, change. It’s our job to stay aware of industry changes.
In many cases, the lender will require some form of secured exit before work can commence. Suitable agreements include a contract with a hotel operator, or a lease agreement from a company with a strong covenant, for example.
At Tiger Financial we can support you to access commercial development loans, including:
- UK-wide loans
- Maximum loan-to-cost (L)TC: up to 85%
- Minimum loan: £100k
- Maximum LTGDV: up to 70%
- Maximum loan: none
- Rates: from 6.75% PA
- Term: 48 months +
- Senior term loans are also available
Matching you with the perfect loan provider
It’s our job to match property developers with the perfect development loan provider. To access suitable business finance that, we need accurate information on every aspect of your property project.
What we need to know:
- High-level executive summary of the project
- Business biographies and background of all financial sponsors
- Valuation (if available)
- Development appraisal
- Cash flow and proposed schedule of works
- Build costs
- Any CGI or drawings to accompany the application
- Exit strategy and end value assumptions
- Marketing and sales strategy
For leaseholds, we will require a tenancy schedule and lease terms.
The information you provide will help us to understand and assess the strength of your application. We can identify any gaps and offer advice and guidance on how to improve your chances of a successful outcome.
Once we have developed a strong application, we’ll identify suitable lenders who match your profile.
We have access to over 200 specialist development lenders. Working with us is the best chance of accessing fast and flexible funding at the best borrowing rates. We’re able to work at speed, turning around applications quickly and getting you a response as soon as possible.
Contact us today and we can talk you through the property finance process, including information on:
- Arrangement fees (broker fees)
- Potential loan term
- Exit fees
- Redemption fees
- Interest charges
To discuss a new commercial development loan or project, get in touch today.
10 tips for financing your property development project
Before approaching lenders, it’s critical that you do your research. So many development loan applications make silly mistakes and errors that cost time and money and affect their chances of finding affordable finance.
We’ve helped hundreds of borrowers access the finance they need for their projects, matching them with the right property finance lender for their needs.
Here are 10 expert tips to help you make the best choices for your property development finance.
1. Do your research
The first rule of any property development project is to do your research. Don’t just check online or on Rightmove, spend some time digging into the details.
Try and identify:
- Which are the up and coming areas?
- If it’s a university town or city, where do the students live?
- Where are the best schools?
- What’s public transport like?
- What are the traffic patterns?
- Are there any other new developments planned in the local area?
- What previous plans have been accepted/rejected by local planners?
While you may be able to find answers to many of these questions yourself for smaller projects, for larger and more complex schemes, a major surveyor will be required to conduct a feasibility study.
The feasibility study will identify and record the local micro factors and larger macro factors that could affect a project’s viability.
The research will ensure you’re not going to propose building a five-bedroom house in an area that’s calling out for affordable homes for first-time buyers, or building student accommodation in an area already saturated or investing in an area that already has a committed pipeline of projects.
If you are building to rent with a buy-to-let mortgage, study the local economy and ensure that there will be consistent rental demand to cover your repayments. Remember that lenders will expert rent to cover at least 125% of buy-to-let mortgage repayments.
2.
Don’t go to the high street
Some high street lenders offer development finance but steer clear.
As well as offering poor rates (and therefore returns), high street lenders are focused on residential mortgages for home customers, not the hard world of development finance.
There have also been examples of misselling as non-specialists either fail to understand complex products, don’t get borrowers the best rates, or in some cases work against the borrower.
Leave high street lenders to sell mortgages, and work with a specialist.
An easy rule of thumb is to ignore anyone who talks about being regulated by the financial conduct authority or uses terms like ‘dream home’. Trust us, they can’t help you as we can.
3.
Be realistic
- Be realistic about your experience: If you try to get funding for a project that is significantly outside of your past development experience, then the chances of securing capital are slim.
- Be realistic about the valuation: You need to be realistic about the value of the land and the final sale price. We all like to hope for the best when it comes to sales, but you should really plan for the worst. If you don’t, the RICS professional undertaking the residual valuation will – which could end up in disappointment if the profit margins are squeezed. In some cases, this could make the entire project unviable.
- Be realistic on construction costs: Again, hope for the best, but plan for the worst. This includes using a sensible contingency, usually around 10% of build cost to protect you from unforeseen expenses.
- Be realistic on timescales: It can take over three months to secure development funding for large and complex developments. For smaller developments, six weeks is normal.
4. Use an experienced development finance broker
Using an experienced development finance broker will give you the best chance of accessing the funding and capital you need for your project.
It is impossible for anyone other than a specialist development finance broker to truly exploit the full opportunities found in such a complex and fragmented funding market.
There are literally hundreds of niche lenders, private lenders, family offices, hedge funds, venture capital firms, private equity funds, peer to peer networks, banks and alternative providers, that without being fully immersed in the sector, you would never know about or have access too.
Without this knowledge, how can you be sure you’re getting the best funding option possible for your property development project?
There are other benefits too. The amount of paperwork required for a full development finance application can be daunting. An experienced broker can prepare a well put together and professional funding pack, to ensure your project is seen in the best light possible by the lender, as well as highlighting any areas that may be a cause for concern.
In most cases, the savings you make in time, effort and interest rates will more than cover the broker fee for your deal.
Visit our page on why to use a broker for more information and advice on our services.
5. Check planning
permission
Many residential refurbishments and conversions can take place under Permitted Development Rights, especially if the work is internal only. While you’ll still need to get specialist consent, it’s typically much easier than submitting a fresh planning application.
If you do need planning permission, it is advisable to arrange it before looking for funding. The simple reason is, if planning permission has been granted you’ll find access to loans is easier, and at better interest rates too.
There are specialist lenders who will consider lending on land without planning. Some venture capital firms will lend on land without planning and will form a joint venture (JV) partnership with you, on the understanding that you share the upside.
However, these options are niche and quite difficult to identify and arrange. In our professional opinion, it’s better to get all planning permission agreed before you start the development finance process.
At the very least, property developers should obtain Outline Planning Permission to provide evidence that it will be possible to build there. If you do this, you will only be able to get an acquisition bridging loan until full consent is granted. At this point, you’ll be able to access regular development finance.
6.
Plan your projects strategically
Before seeking to finance property development, you’ll want to demonstrate to lenders that you have planned your project strategically. This includes identifying all key risks and threats and putting in place a mitigation plan alongside all development costs.
Part of this is standard project management practice, and it demonstrates that you’re serious about your responsibilities as a borrower.
To deliver any construction project, you’ll need a solid team around you to provide support so get this in place before you apply for finance.
7.
Choose your main contractor carefully
Your main contractor is almost as important as you in the eyes of any lender. Before they finance your property development, they’ll pay critical attention to who you elect to use as your main contractor and go over their finances and history before coming to a decision.
Selecting the wrong contractor could have a terminal effect on your development finance application, especially for larger schemes.
The lender will want to ensure that the main contractor is:
- Experienced in the type of construction that you are proposing
- Has completed schemes of a similar size in the past
- Is familiar with the challenges that your scheme may face. (For instance, building in central London in a restricted space with a party wall, is totally different to a straightforward ground-up build on a greenfield site)
- Has an established track record, including at least three years of accounts and a strong balance sheet
- Has sufficient cash flow to float at least one or two months’ build costs if required
8.
Consider a joint-venture with a landowner
If you know someone who owns of a suitable plot of land that’s ripe for development, then a joint venture could be an option. In many ventures, the landowner puts up the land, and you, the developer, builds out the site. It can cust property development finance costs, and reduce risk too.
If you (or your joint venture partnership SPV) own the land, then many lenders will fund 100% of the build cost.
This then presents a win/win situation for the landowner and the developer, with an equitable 50/50 split of all profits.
9.
Plan your exit with precision
The pain of property development is paid back by the profit. You may be planning to market your properties from the moment you buy the land and get planning, or you may be planning to hold the asset and refinance on a mortgage once the build is complete.
If you are a property developer building a larger number of units, then getting them all sold by the end of the property development finance term may be a challenge. In this instance, there are a couple of options available to you:
- Some companies who will block purchase large numbers of new build properties, sometimes off-plan. This not only gives you surety that you can get your development sold, it also de-risks the project in the eyes of the lender, so increases the chance of a successful financing outcome. This is particularly the case for larger speculative developments. In return for doing this, the purchaser will require a discount from the full market value. Often this is a fair price to pay for the confidence the scheme will be sold.
- Another option is to use what’s called a Development Exit bridge. This is a bridging loan that can be used to redeem the last of the development finance, and replace it with a fresh bridging loan facility, pending the sale of the remaining assets.
10. Stay in the game
So, your project is completed and the loan has been repaid. What do you do now?
Opportunities can emerge at any time and we’re always on hand to help – particularly if we have successfully arranged finance for you before.
The more successful projects you complete, the easier it is for us to arrange finance for you. Don’t leave it too long to get back into the game.
Contact Tiger Financial today for your property development loan
If you’re searching for a new property development loan, then contact us today. We’re ready and waiting to take your call and connect you with our panel of experienced and enthusiastic lenders.