Innovation for Property Developers

The world of property development finance is a busy and exciting one but not one that has seen too many changes to technology.  At the time of writing, the country is facing a daunting crisis with the impact of CoronaVirus (COVID19) bringing our usual working day to a halt.  However, an innovation from Developer Money Market is providing a new tool to help property developers find the vital financing they require. Inevitably, the CoronaVirus crisis is going to have an ongoing economic fallout which could make the finding of property development funding significantly more difficult.

The traditional route for property developers needing funding for a new project is to either return to their previous funder, start ringing around new banks or contacting a finance broker to do the job for them.  An established bank contact is, naturally, a reasonable place to start but does not necessarily mean that the terms offered will be the best available at the time. With many dozens of specialist development funding banks, calling each to find out their appetite for a deal can be very time consuming.  An independent development finance broker can be a good option as they should have an up-to-date knowledge of the market and will do a lot of the legwork.

A few months ago, those were the options to pick from.  But just recently a fourth option has become available from Developer Money Market who have introduced a new online platform that enables developers to search loan products online.  The online funding search platform means that property developers can simply enter the key financial requirements for their new project and, with one click, be provided with a list of matching loans.  The search process matches the information, such as loan size, loan to cost, loan to value, term, etc, and then only presents the loan products that may be suitable.  

Loan types include senior development, stretch, mezzanine and bridge loan options with facilities available from just £25,000 to £150million.  Finding that lender that will consider a high loan to cost, a long-term loan or does not request personal guarantees is suddenly made much easier and doesn’t need specialist knowledge!

A developer can then compare each loan and is provided with additional information about the type of lender and their usual appetite for deals.  With each loan data saved to the developers secure account, it is easy to amend the numbers quickly and resubmit to see what new options may appear.  All of the bank data is regularly updated by www.developermoneymarket.com so fast comparisons can easily be made when the developer is considering a new site.

Of course, the job doesn’t stop there and when the developer has selected which loans may be of interest, a simple click passes the application process to Developer Money Market.  Their role is to review the application and submit it to the banks concerned within a professionally presented requirements document. Where the bank shows interest in providing terms, then the developer can manage the rest of the process directly or request the management services of Developer Money Market.  If the developer manages directly then the introduction fee is kept to just 0.5% saving vital costs. However, Developer Money Market can still act in the usual broker capacity and manage the whole process for the borrower if required.

The freedom to both efficiently search for property development loans and have the option to keep costs down is already attracting great interest from property developers with hundreds of searches having been done in just the first few weeks.  Property developers can try the service for free and without commitment via the Developer Money Market website.