An experienced developer wanted to acquire a vacant commercial site at Southport, which didn’t have a development approval.
Challenge
Banks’ appetites for site finance are limited at the best of times – but without a DA, it’s even worse. In fact, it’s so weak, that we’ve heard many finance brokers say that you can’t get finance on a “raw site” – or that you can but with LVRs limited to as low as 30% or so.
If banks will lend against a site that can’t commence construction imminently, they also want to see income sources to service the debt – something which most property developers just don’t have. Our client was just that.
Solution
At STAC, we have relationships with about 300 non-bank lenders, which gives us the ability to finance just about any kind of asset or scenario.
As we always do, from that list of 300 or so, we create a shortlist based upon factors such as the asset type, location, loan size and sought gearing level. We then have conversations with this shortlist to whittle it down further, then issuing “credit submissions” to three or so lenders who we think will be the best fit and most competitive.
Outcome
Ultimately, we negotiated a private debt facility at a 70% LVR – a great outcome for a “raw site” without DA.
Just to put icing on the cake, the interest rate was a highly competitive 6.9% (mid-2022 prior to the rapid RBA increases), which was materially lower than most private loans – DA or no DA, particularly for this kind of LVR.
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