Development Finance
Leeds

A developer was building 28 apartments on a former car park site in Leeds city centre. They had planning consent and a contractor appointed, but their original development funder pulled out at the last minute due to an internal policy change — leaving the developer with a site, a contractor ready to start, and no funding. Every week of delay was costing £15,000 in holding costs and risked losing the contractor's build slot.

Development finance with phased drawdowns is inherently complex — the lender needs to understand the build programme, appoint a monitoring surveyor, and release funds against certified completed works. The original funder's withdrawal also raised questions with new lenders about why the deal had been dropped. Additionally, the apartments were a mix of 1-bed and 2-bed units with a commercial unit on the ground floor, creating a mixed-use element that some development lenders wouldn't accommodate.

We approached our sister company's development finance panel alongside our own bridging contacts to find the best fit. A specialist development lender agreed to take on the full facility — £2.1m for the site (already acquired) and £4.4m in phased drawdowns against the build programme. We provided a full explanation of the original funder's withdrawal (internal policy, not deal-related) which satisfied the new lender's due diligence. Although the 68% LTV was high, the lender was happy to take a view given the developer's strong track record and was keen to establish a fruitful long-term relationship. Directors' personal guarantees were required on top of a corporate guarantee. The instructed solicitors were exceptional — turning around the legal due diligence at pace, which was critical to meeting the developer's tight timeline. The monitoring surveyor was appointed within a week and the first drawdown was released 26 days after our initial conversation.