Development exit finance broker for UK developers

What a development exit finance broker actually does

A development exit finance broker is a specialist intermediary that arranges the short-term loan a developer uses to repay a maturing development facility and fund the sales period on a finished or nearly finished scheme. A generalist finance broker treats that request like any other bridge: it takes the headline numbers, forwards them to a handful of familiar names, and waits. A specialist works the case before it ever reaches a lender. We read the scheme the way an underwriter will read it, weigh the risk the way a credit committee will weigh it, and only then decide which desks are worth approaching. That difference is why two brokers can present the same scheme and come back with materially different terms. The developer sitting on a completed block does not need more introductions. They need someone who can tell, on day one, which lender will fund the exposure, at what leverage, and on what timeline, so the redemption date on the existing facility is met without a discounted fire sale.

Reading the redemption statement before we approach a lender

The first document we ask for is the redemption statement on your existing development loan. It tells us the exact figure needed to clear the senior lender, the date the facility matures, any exit fee or minimum interest the outgoing lender will charge, and whether interest is still rolling up against headroom that is nearly exhausted. Those numbers set the floor for everything that follows. If the redemption figure sits close to the maximum a new lender will advance against the gross development value, the case needs structuring rather than simply placing: a top-up charge, a phased release, or an equity contribution to bridge the gap. Reading the statement early is what stops a case falling over at the eleventh hour, when the developer discovers the new facility clears the debt but leaves nothing for fees and the maturity date is a fortnight away. We would rather find that on day one than at legals.

Knowing which desk funds which exposure

This is where a specialist earns the introducer relationship. Lenders do not all read the same scheme the same way. A single block of apartments held in one title carries concentrated exposure: the lender is relying on a run of individual sales from one building, and some desks cap their appetite for that sharply while others are comfortable with it. A row of houses or plots on an estate spreads the same debt across separate titles that can be sold and part-redeemed one at a time, which several lenders prefer and price accordingly. Student schemes, build to rent blocks and office to residential conversions each sit with a different subset of lenders again. We keep a live picture of which desks are actively writing which exposure this quarter, because appetite moves: a lender that funded single-block apartment exposure freely last year may have pulled back this year. Matching the scheme to the desk that genuinely wants it is worth more than any rate table.

Negotiating release pricing unit by unit

On a scheme that sells down in stages, the terms that matter most are often not the headline rate but the part-payment mechanism. When a unit sells, the lender releases its charge over that unit in exchange for a payment, and the size of that payment, the release price, decides how much of each sale reaches the developer and how much simply repays debt. A release price set too high starves the developer of working capital through the sales run and can force price cuts to keep the facility moving. We negotiate the release schedule unit by unit so early sales carry a fair share of the debt without draining every completion. We also press on the exit fee, the minimum term, and whether interest is retained, rolled or serviced, because on a bridge held over a sales period those terms compound. Indicative exit bridge pricing sits at roughly 0.65 to 0.95 percent per month, but the structure around that rate frequently matters more than the rate itself.

Lining up the take-out before you draw down

A development exit loan is only ever a bridge to something else, and we plan that something else before the loan draws rather than after. The take-out is either sale of the remaining units or a refinance onto longer-term debt where the developer keeps stock to let. If the plan is to retain units, we establish early whether they will support a term loan or a buy to let facility at the leverage the developer needs, so the exit loan is not simply refinancing itself into another corner. Terms on an exit bridge typically run 6 to 18 months, and lenders want a credible route to repayment before they commit, not a vague hope that the market will clear the stock. Setting the take-out up front also tends to improve the exit facility itself: a lender that can see a clean refinance or a realistic sales runway prices the bridge more keenly than one staring at an open-ended hold. The full picture of the product sits on our pillar page at /solutions/development-exit-loans/, and where the plan is to refinance we cover the mechanics at /solutions/refinance-a-development-loan/.

How we are paid, and why whole of market matters

We act as a finance arranger and introducer, never as a lender, which means we neither set the interest rate nor fund the loan ourselves. Our fee for arranging the finance is disclosed to you in writing before you commit to anything. Where a lender also pays us an introducer fee, we disclose that as well, so you can see every payment attached to your case. We work across the whole of the market rather than from a closed panel, and we make no claim to an exclusive tie with any lender. Lenders that publicly operate in this market include LendInvest, Shawbrook, Octane Capital, Paragon, Together, United Trust Bank, Hampshire Trust Bank, Close Brothers and Atelier; their criteria change constantly and nothing here is an offer of finance or an endorsement of any one of them. Independence is the point: our incentive is to place your scheme with the desk that fits it, not to feed one lender's book. You can read more about who lends in this space at /learn/development-exit-finance-lenders/.

Unregulated lending and where advice sits

The development exit, bridging and development finance we arrange counts as unregulated commercial lending, falling outside the Financial Conduct Authority's regulated mortgage perimeter, and Development Exit Property Finance holds no authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority. It is finance for developers, companies and experienced property borrowers, not consumer mortgage lending. We arrange and introduce; we do not give financial, legal or tax advice, and any rate, leverage band or term mentioned on this site is illustrative, differs by lender and scheme, and is never an offer of finance. Where a case would require FCA authorisation, we pass it to an appropriately authorised firm. None of this changes what you get from us: a specialist reading of the scheme, honest terms on the table, and a broker whose job is to clear your development lender on time.