ACL 390611 | MFAA Member | Established 2005
Development FinanceUnderwritten on the Exit.
A lender funding a development is not buying your site. It is buying your feasibility, your presales and your ability to finish. It rebuilds all three before it lends, and the version it arrives at is the one that governs the deal.
15 minutes with a commercial specialist. Bring the feasibility and the DA status, or just the site and the yield you are chasing. We’d rather see it at concept than at contract. We charge you nothing at any stage. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement and we disclose it in writing before any work begins.
Intellect Finance – Development Finance Specialists
Independent since 2005 | ACL 390611What Is Development Finance?
Development finance funds property built to be sold or leased rather than occupied by the borrower. It is assessed on the feasibility of the project, the strength of the exit, and the capital the developer has behind it. The lender is underwriting a sale programme as well as a build.
That is the line between this and a commercial construction facility. Construction funds a building you will use, and the debt is repaid out of your trading or refinanced against the finished asset. Development funds a building you will sell, and the debt is repaid out of the sales.
So the questions change completely. Not can you service the loan, but will the project realise what the feasibility says, will it sell fast enough to clear the facility, and if it does not, what happens to the stock that is left. A lender answers those before it answers anything about rate.
Common Situations
Why People Come to Us for Development Finance
Six project types. The lender panel narrows sharply as you move down this list.
A small residential infill project
A handful of townhouses or a dual occupancy. The most widely funded development there is, and the one where a developer’s own equity does most of the work.
A medium density apartment project
Presales become the governing constraint rather than an advantage. What you can contract before construction usually decides whether senior debt is available at all.
An industrial or commercial subdivision
Funded on pre-commitment leases and end value rather than off-the-plan sales. A very different assessment, and often a more comfortable one.
Land subdivision without buildings
Civil works, servicing and titling rather than construction. Staged releases are common, and the timing of registration is the thing that most often slips.
A site bought before approval
Land held while a DA is pursued. This is a separate facility and a separate risk. See commercial lot loans for the acquisition stage.
Completed stock that has not all sold
Residual stock finance takes out the development facility so the remaining lots can be sold in an orderly way instead of under expiry pressure.
Social Proof
120+ Five-Star Google Reviews
Business owners, investors and developers alongside home buyers. Pulled live from Google.
Joseph Sukkar
Principal Broker · ACL 390611
Who You’re Dealing With
Built on 25 Years in Australian Finance
Joseph Sukkar started in finance in 2000 and founded Intellect Finance in Penrith in 2005. Since then the team has arranged more than 6,500 loans for clients across Australia, from first homes to complex commercial and asset finance.
Development files sit with Charbel, our Commercial and Complex Lending Specialist, and they are the kind of file where the useful work happens well before anything is submitted. A lender does not read your feasibility, it rebuilds it, so we test it the same way first, on the lender’s assumptions rather than yours. That tells you what margin the project genuinely leaves and where the capital stack needs to change before a credit team ever sees it.
Part of Our 100+ Lender Panel
The names most people recognise are residential lenders. Much of what we arrange runs through funders that do not advertise to the public. Accreditation with a lender is not an endorsement by it, and which lender suits you is decided by your file rather than by who is on this list.
Got a Feasibility and a Site?
That is enough for us to tell you if it funds.What Actually Decides It
The Feasibility Is the Application
A lender does not read your feasibility, it rebuilds it. Every assumption is replaced with the lender’s own, and the version that survives is what the facility is sized against. Six things determine what comes out the other side.
The margin has to leave a buffer
Gross realisation against total development cost produces a profit margin, and lenders require that margin to absorb cost increases and softer prices without the project going underwater. A feasibility that only works if everything lands perfectly is not a feasibility, it is a hope, and it gets treated as one.
Presales are the lever you control
Qualified presales change the risk profile more than anything else available to you. Lenders test whether contracts are unconditional, whether deposits are genuine, whether purchasers are at arm’s length, and whether sales are spread across buyers rather than concentrated in a few.
The capital stack sets the cost and the control
Senior debt ranks first and costs the least. Mezzanine or preferred equity sits behind it at materially higher cost. Your own equity sits last and wears the first loss. Adding a layer to reduce your contribution always buys you less profit and usually buys someone else more say in the project.
The exit is underwritten at the start
How the facility gets repaid is decided before the first drawdown, not at completion. Sell down, refinance to a hold facility, or residual stock finance for whatever is left. A development loan reaching expiry with unsold stock and no arranged exit is where developers lose the profit they earned.
The programme is a risk in itself
Interest runs while nothing is being built. Conditions of consent, authority approvals, service connections, certification and titling all sit between approval and revenue, and most are outside your control. Lenders assess the timetable independently and expect a contingency against it.
Track record is priced rather than just noted
A first development and a fifth attract different lenders, different layers and different pricing on identical numbers. Where the record is thin, an experienced builder, a project manager with a history, or a joint venture partner can carry some of that weight.
Checked August 2026. Foreign purchaser rules on this page are sourced from the ATO on exemption certificates for property developers. Best Interests Duty scope is sourced from ASIC Regulatory Guide 273. Everything else on this page is described in the important information at the foot of the page.
We don’t publish rates, and we’d be cautious of anyone in commercial who does. What we can do is rebuild the feasibility the way a credit team will, tell you what margin it actually leaves, and show you where the stack needs to change before anyone sees it. Ask us to test the feaso.
The Honest Comparison
Residential or Commercial? They Fund Nothing Alike.
People treat development finance as one product. It is two, and which one you are doing changes the lender, the evidence and the timetable.
Apartments townhouses and subdivision
- A deep buyer market, so stock can be sold in small parcels to many purchasers
- Off-the-plan contracts let you evidence demand before construction starts
- Presale hurdles gate the senior debt, and hitting them takes time and marketing spend
- Strata titling and registration sit between practical completion and settlement
- Foreign purchaser rules apply, with caps on how much of a development they can take
Industrial retail office and mixed use
- Pre-commitment leases do the job presales do, and one good tenant can carry a project
- End value is driven by the lease covenant and the yield, which is easier to evidence
- Refinancing to a hold facility on completion is a genuine alternative to selling
- A shallow buyer pool, so an unleased building is far harder to move than an unsold unit
- Concentration risk, because losing one pre-commitment can undo the whole feasibility
Neither is easier. They fail differently. A residential project fails slowly, through a presale hurdle that will not close or a settlement run where buyers walk. A commercial project fails suddenly, when the tenant that justified the end value does not sign. What that means practically is that residential rewards patience and marketing budget, and commercial rewards getting one lease document right before anything else happens. If you are weighing a site that could go either way, that difference should sit alongside the yield in your decision, and it is worth a conversation before the DA is lodged rather than after.
Bring Us the Site Before the DA
Tell us whether the exit is presales or a lease. That choice changes the lender, the evidence and the timetable. Fifteen minutes. No obligation.The Difference
Getting the Stack Right Is Worth More Than Getting the Rate Down
On a development, how the funding is layered affects the return far more than the margin on the senior debt does. That is the part most developers negotiate last.
We Rebuild the Feasibility First
Before anything goes anywhere we test the feaso the way a credit team will, with the lender’s assumptions rather than yours. You then know what margin the project genuinely leaves, and whether the gap is a pricing problem or a project problem.
Senior Mezzanine and Private Compared Together
Development is where the non-bank and private market is deepest and least visible from the outside. We price the whole stack as one structure rather than solving for the finest senior debt margin and finding the rest later.
Always in Writing
Property development is a business purpose, so Best Interests Duty does not apply. ASIC Regulatory Guide 273 limits that duty to credit regulated under the National Credit Act. We disclose in writing how we are paid before you proceed regardless of whether the law requires it.
We’ll Tell You the Feaso Doesn’t Work
Where the margin will not absorb a cost overrun, where the presale hurdle is not realistically achievable, or where the exit depends on a market that has already turned, we will say so before you spend more on consultants. That costs us the transaction.
The Process
What Happens and What We’ll Need
The most information-heavy facility we arrange, and the one where being early is worth the most.
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15 minutes
The project at concept
The site, the intended yield, where the DA sits, what equity you have and what your record looks like. No documents. You will finish the call knowing whether the project is fundable in this market and roughly what the stack would need to be.
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We test
The feasibility rebuilt
Realisation and cost reworked on lender assumptions, the margin tested against a cost overrun and a softer sale price, and the interest and holding costs of a realistic programme included rather than an optimistic one. That produces the number the deal has to work within.
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You gather
Project documents
Substantial, and worth assembling properly. An incomplete development submission is worse than a late one.
- Full feasibility and cost plan
- Development approval and conditions of consent
- Plans, specifications and quantity surveyor report
- Builder details and fixed price contract
- Presale contracts or pre-commitment leases
- Evidence of your equity contribution
- Development track record and project team
- Entity structure, financials and guarantor ID
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We manage
Approval drawdowns and the exit
Lender selection across the whole stack, then valuation, quantity surveyor appointment, conditions and the drawdown cycle through construction. We also arrange the exit facility, whether that is a hold refinance or residual stock finance, before the development loan reaches its expiry rather than after.
Track Record
Commercial Is Not a Sideline For Us
Development is the most cyclical lending in the market and the first thing most brokerages stop writing. We have run a commercial desk alongside residential since 2005.
Related Options
The Facilities Either Side of a Development
A development runs through several facilities from site acquisition to final sale. These are the ones around it.
Commercial lot loans
Acquiring the site, often before a DA exists. A separate facility and a separate risk.
Commercial construction
Building premises you will occupy rather than sell. A different product entirely.
Commercial property loan
The hold facility that takes out a development you decide to keep and lease.
Mezzanine finance
The layer between senior debt and your own equity, explained on its own terms.
Commercial property refinance
Where completed stock is retained and the development facility needs taking out.
Every commercial facility we arrange
Back up to the full commercial finance range if none of these is it.
Send Us the Feasibility.
We’ll rebuild it the way a credit team will and tell you what is left.Questions Answered
Development Finance FAQs
The questions developers ask us most often before a site goes unconditional.
What is development finance?
Development finance funds property built to be sold or leased rather than occupied by the borrower. It is assessed on the feasibility of the project, the strength of the exit, and the capital the developer has behind it. Unlike a standard construction facility, the lender is underwriting a sale programme as well as a build.
How is a development facility sized?
From the feasibility, which the lender rebuilds rather than accepts. It tests gross realisation against total development cost, works out the profit margin the project produces on cost, and requires that margin to leave a buffer for cost increases and softer sale prices. A project with a thin margin funds poorly regardless of how good the site is.
Do I need presales to get development finance?
For most residential projects, yes, and they do more to unlock funding than anything else you control. Lenders look for qualified presales: unconditional contracts, genuine deposits, arm’s length purchasers and a spread rather than a handful of buyers taking many lots. Commercial projects use pre-commitment leases in the same role.
What is the capital stack in a development?
The layers of funding behind the project. Senior debt sits first at the lowest cost, mezzanine or preferred equity sits behind it at higher cost, and the developer’s own equity sits last and carries the most risk. Where each layer sits determines what it costs, what security it takes, and how much control it has if the project goes off plan.
Can I sell to foreign buyers off the plan?
Often yes, under a new or near-new dwelling exemption certificate. The ATO states a development needs 50 or more dwellings and development approval to qualify, and that the developer may sell no more than 50 percent of the total dwellings to foreign persons and no more than 3 million dollars worth to a single foreign person. Get advice before relying on it.
What happens if the project does not sell out?
That is what residual stock finance is for. It refinances the completed but unsold lots onto a term facility so the development loan can be discharged, which stops an expensive short term facility running past its expiry. Planning that possibility at the start is far cheaper than arranging it under pressure at the end.
How does the approval timeline affect funding?
Directly, because interest runs while nothing is being built. Conditions of consent, authority approvals, service connections and certification all sit between approval and construction, and each is outside the developer’s control. Lenders assess the programme as a risk in its own right and expect a contingency for it.
Does Best Interests Duty apply to development finance?
No. ASIC Regulatory Guide 273 states that the best interests obligations apply only to credit products regulated under the National Credit Act, meaning credit provided to consumers for personal, domestic or household purposes or for the purchase or improvement of residential investment property. Property development is a business purpose. We disclose in writing how we are paid on every transaction regardless.
Visit Us
Penrith Based.Clients Australia-Wide.
Penrith is our head office and the one you can walk into without an appointment. We also meet clients at Parramatta and in the Sydney CBD by arrangement. Development files run alongside your quantity surveyor, solicitor and project team wherever they are based.
Ready When You Are
Tell Us About the Project.
The site, the yield, the DA status and your equity. Fifteen minutes and we’ll rebuild the feasibility on lender assumptions, tell you what margin it genuinely leaves, and show you what the capital stack would need to look like. If the numbers do not work, you will hear that before you spend more on consultants. Penrith based, clients Australia-wide. Intellect Finance Pty Ltd, ACL 390611.
Business purpose lending sits outside the consumer credit framework, so Best Interests Duty does not apply to it. We disclose how we are paid before you proceed on every transaction. Nothing on this page is credit assistance, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice or an offer of credit, and no outcome is guaranteed.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member
Important information General information only. Not credit assistance or an offer of credit. We charge you no fee. Every caveat and source on this page is collected here. Tap to read.
General information only. The content on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not credit assistance, financial advice, legal advice or tax advice, and it is not an offer of credit. You should consider whether it is appropriate for you and seek your own advice before acting on it.
Nothing here is a guarantee. Loan approval, borrowing capacity, interest rates, loan to value ratios, valuations, timeframes and eligibility are determined by individual lenders and by independent valuers, not by us. They differ between lenders and change over time. Any figure, range or timeframe on this page is indicative and is not a quote, an offer, or a prediction of your outcome. Facility limits, presale requirements, margin thresholds and funding layers are set by individual lenders in the same way, and vary with the project, the location, the market and the developer’s track record. Requirements vary considerably between lenders and with market conditions, development lending is the most cyclical commercial product and appetite changes, and timeframes are not guaranteed. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit, a quote, or a statement of what any particular lender will do.
Business purpose lending. Credit provided wholly or predominantly for business purposes is not regulated consumer credit, and the Best Interests Duty and responsible lending obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 do not apply to it. We disclose how we are paid in writing before you proceed on every transaction regardless.
Tax and legal. GST, stamp duty, land tax and the tax treatment of any ownership structure depend on your circumstances and on how the contract is written. We are not tax agents, accountants or solicitors. Confirm the position with a registered tax agent, the Australian Taxation Office, your accountant or your solicitor before acting. Planning, titling and foreign investment questions sit in the same category and are matters for your solicitor and accountant. We are not lawyers. Confirm the foreign purchaser rules referred to on this page with your solicitor or the ATO before relying on them.
How we are paid. Intellect Finance does not charge borrowers a fee for arranging finance, and does not charge a clawback fee where a loan is discharged early. Lenders pay us a commission on settlement. The basis of that commission is disclosed to you in writing in our Credit Guide before any credit assistance is provided.
Third-party information. Where this page refers to government schemes, regulatory settings, tax treatment or lender policy, that information is sourced from the relevant authority and was correct to the best of our knowledge at the date shown on this page. Those rules change, sometimes without notice. Always confirm the current position with the issuing authority or with us before relying on it.
Found something wrong? If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate or out of date, tell us at joe@intellectfinance.com.au and we will review and correct it.
Intellect Finance Pty Ltd | Australian Credit Licence 390611 | MFAA Member | AFCA Member