What development lenders really look at.

Ask most developers what a lender wants and they will quote you a loan-to-cost figure. It is a fair starting point (up to 70% of GDV, senior stretch beyond that with the right story), but the number is downstream of the thing that actually decides the case: can this team deliver this scheme, on this site, to this budget?

Lenders fund people as much as bricks. A credible track record on schemes of a similar size, a main contractor who has done it before, a professional team that has been appointed rather than promised: these move a case further than another point of margin ever will.

The build cost has to be real. A contingency that exists only on paper worries an experienced lender, because they have funded the overruns that eat thin margins. A well-costed appraisal with a sensible contingency signals a developer who has done this before and priced in the surprises.

Finally, the exit. Sales at the values you are underwriting, or a refinance onto a term facility the numbers actually support. Get those three (team, cost, exit) right, and the leverage tends to follow. Get them wrong, and no amount of GDV headroom will rescue the case.