The covering email asks for staged development finance. The works line is a single round number. No elemental split. No contingency. No contractor name. Credit does not decline the file on optimism alone. It stalls on a spend it cannot monitor, release or recover.
StatusKWO prices commercial facilities for professional developers, investors and corporate borrowers. Owner-occupier main-home work sits outside that set. Short commercial facilities on the published schedule currently show a monthly rate from 1.25%, an entry fee of 2%, an exit fee of 1.5%, LTV up to 85%, loans from £10,000 to £10,000,000+ and terms up to 16 months. Development facilities are priced on the scheme. Those bridging figures are a schedule reference, not a promise that every ground-up file prices at the floor.
The round-sum works figure that stalls a development DIP
A tidy decision in principle request is not a funded first draw. Credit needs the same papers a quantity surveyor and building control officer would recognise. A one-line “£420k to complete” box does not underwrite a programme.
Our general bridging pack note covers identity, companies and exits. The planning permission overview covers consent risk. The bridge versus development split covers product choice. The pages below are narrower. They are the build-cost and drawdown evidence a specialist desk wants before it prices a works facility.
Start the enquiry with one page. Site address and title number. Gross and net facility. Land or purchase price already paid. Works total. Contingency. Prelims. Fees. Gross development value. Programme length. Named contractor or build route. Named monitoring surveyor if already instructed. Named exit with a date. Then attach the cost plan before the CGI. Credit can read a render in five minutes. They cannot invent elemental costs from a covering email.
Soft construction prints do not relax that ask. August’s Construction PMI still sat below fifty, with housebuilding the weak leg. Quieter sites make thin cost packs more, not less, dangerous. A facility sized to last year’s tender without a live quote usually fails the first monitoring visit.
Heavy works dressed as a short bridging loan create the same stall. If the spend needs staged releases against certificates, say so and stop forcing a sixteen-month light-refurb story onto a rebuild. See heavy refurbishment loans for the product fork. The pack below assumes a professional developer who already knows the works are the loan.
Cost plans contingencies and prelims credit must see
Development credit is cost-led as well as value-led. Gross development value sets the ceiling. The cost plan sets the cash that has to leave the account before that value exists.
Send a dated cost plan that breaks the works into elements a human can check. Foundations. Frame. Envelope. Internals. M and E. Externals. Preliminaries. Professional fees. Contingency. Inflation if the programme runs long. A single spreadsheet cell labelled “build” is not a cost plan.
RICS publishes the New Rules of Measurement suite for order-of-cost estimates and elemental cost plans on capital building works. Credit is not asking brokers to recite NRM section numbers. It is asking for a spend that can be reconciled against invoices and site progress. An elemental layout that a monitoring surveyor can tick is enough. A brochure total is not.
State the base date of the estimate. Prices move. A cost plan frozen nine months ago on a scheme that has not started is already soft. If tenders came back above the estimate, put the variance on page one. Silence forces the underwriter to discover it later, usually when the first draw is already short.
Contingency belongs as its own line. Do not bury it inside prelims. Credit wants to see how much risk cash sits in the facility and who controls its release. A five percent contingency on a simple conversion is one story. The same percentage on a deep basement in made ground is another. Say what the contingency is for. Ground. Existing structure. Design change. Tender risk. Vague “risk pot” wording usually gets cut.
Preliminaries and site overheads need the same honesty. Scaffold. Welfare. Temporary works. Insurances. Site management. Borrowers who strip prelims to win an LTV argument often come back for an uplift when the contractor’s first application arrives. Put the prelim total next to the works total. Credit will ask anyway.
Professional fees sit outside the brick count. Architect. Engineer. Party wall. Building control. Warranty provider. Monitoring surveyor. Lender legal. Borrower legal. If fees are already spent, say what is sunk and what remains. A facility that only funds bricks while unpaid design fees block the next approval is a stalled site with a full loan book.
VAT treatment changes cash. Some professional schemes reclaim. Some do not. Put the VAT assumption in writing beside the cost plan. Guessing after the first invoice is how equity disappears into HMRC timing.
Contractor quotes warranties and programme that prove the spend
A cost plan without a delivery route is a theory. Credit wants to know who will spend the money and on what programme.
Named contractor with a written quotation beats a verbal budget from a contact. Fixed price, remeasurement or cost-plus each change monitoring. Say which. Attach the quote PDF, not a paraphrase. If the contractor is still being selected, say the tender process and the date quotes land. A DIP can still issue. A first works draw usually waits for a signed build contract or an accepted tender the monitoring surveyor can work from.
Self-build professional developers who act as principal contractor need the same clarity. Who is the contracts manager. Which trades are direct. Which packages are subcontracted. How valuations will be certified. Credit will not invent a JCT structure from a WhatsApp thread.
Programme length has to match the facility term and the exit. A twelve-month build inside a nine-month loan is already broken on paper. Put start on site, weathertight, first fix, second fix and practical completion as dated milestones. Slippage is normal. A programme with no milestones is not.
Warranty and insurance papers sit beside the contractor pack when the exit is a sale or a term refinance on new or converted dwellings. NHBC, Premier or equivalent cover letters, latent defects proposals and contractor all-risks evidence belong in the zip when they already exist. Missing warranty routes stall many refinance exits even when the bricks look fine. Put the intended provider on page one if the policy is not yet bound.
Retentions and payment terms change cash flow. A five percent retention held to the end of the defects period is not available for the next stage. Show how retentions sit inside the drawdown model. Borrowers who assume every certified pound hits their account the same week usually run dry mid-programme.
Auction purchases that need immediate heavy works still need this cost pack after the hammer. The legal pack clears title. It does not clear a rebuild budget. Do not treat a 28-day completion as permission to invent the cost plan later.
Planning versus building regulations papers that sit beside the cost
Consent risk and construction risk are different files. Planning decides whether the scheme may exist in that form. Building regulations decide whether the works meet technical standards as they are built.
GOV.UK’s when permission is required guidance is clear that operations falling within development generally need planning permission, subject to permitted development and other regimes. Credit still wants the decision notice, approved plans and condition schedule in the pack for the scheme being funded. Outline consent with reserved matters outstanding is not full delivery certainty. Say what remains.
Building regulations are separate. GOV.UK’s building regulations approval pages state that approval is different from planning permission and that you may need both. Put the building control route in the enquiry. Full plans. Building notice. Registered building control approver. Building Safety Regulator involvement on higher-risk buildings. A cost plan that assumes a path the site cannot use is fiction.
Conditions that cost money belong next to the contingency. Contaminated land remediation. Highway works. Ecology licences. Sound insulation upgrades. Fire strategy changes after consultation. If a pre-commencement condition blocks start on site, say the discharge status before you ask for a land-and-works facility. Credit prices the clock it can see.
Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy liabilities change residual equity. Put the liability and payment timing in the cash waterfall. A GDV that ignores CIL is not a residual. It is marketing.
Existing structure surveys sit with conversion and heavy refurbishment files. Asbestos. Structural. Drainage. Measured survey. A cost plan that never opened the roof usually underprices the first month. Attach the surveys you already hold. Order the ones you do not before the monitoring surveyor finds them for you.
Drawdown stages retentions and monitoring that release cash
Development facilities are released against progress, not against hope. The drawdown schedule is how credit controls that.
Write the stages. Land or purchase completion. Demolition. Foundations. Structure. Envelope. First fix. Second fix. Practical completion. Each stage needs a percentage or a pound figure that matches the cost plan. A schedule that front-loads seventy percent of the works into “mobilisation” will be rewritten.
Monitoring is not optional decoration. Name who will inspect and certify. Lender’s monitoring surveyor. Independent quantity surveyor. Project monitor. The certificate releases cash. Photos from the borrower’s phone do not. Put the monitoring fee assumption in the cash model so it does not surprise anyone on draw two.
Invoices and applications for payment must match the certified stage. Credit will reconcile supplier names, VAT and quantities against the cost plan. Round-sum contractor invoices with no backup stall releases. Teach the borrower that before the first application, not after.
Interest, fees and retained sums change net proceeds at each stage. A facility that looks large enough on day one can leave the borrower short once entry fees, monitoring costs and retained interest sit in the statement. Show gross facility, fees, interest method and net cash available for works. StatusKWO’s published short-facility fees are schedule figures only. Live development pricing follows the risk in the file.
Retention release at practical completion is its own event. Defects liability cash is not GDV. Do not treat the retention as sale proceeds. If the exit is a refinance, the take-out lender will ask for completion evidence and warranty status before it clears the bridge. Our exit finance note covers the refinance path. The drawdown pack still has to prove the spend that creates that exit.
Portfolio take-outs that rely on several finished units need unit-level completion evidence, not a site-wide story. One unfinished plot can block a line meant to clear the whole facility. Put weak units on their own row early.
How cost risk changes GDV LTV and the exit
Loan to cost and loan to GDV are different controls. Confusing them is how files get over-advanced on day one and under-funded on month six.
State both. Loan against land and works cost. Loan against expected gross development value on the lender’s valuation basis. Credit will haircut optimistic GDV assumptions, especially while construction demand prints stay soft. A residual that only works at last year’s asking prices is already thin.
Interest during the build is a cost. Longer programmes burn more of it. If sales rates slow, the facility may need an extension before units clear. Extensions cost money and re-open underwriting. Build that risk into contingency and term, not into a hope that every unit exchanges in week one of marketing.
Exit quality sits on the finished product, not on the first CGI. Sale exits need realistic pricing and a marketing window after practical completion. Refinance exits need a product a term lender will actually take, including warranty, certificates and tenancy evidence where the stock will be let. A development facility with no named exit is a longer bridge with more moving parts.
Cross-collateral support from other assets can repair a tight residual. It does not repair a broken cost plan. Send the other titles if they are part of the security story. Do not introduce them on the third draw because the works overran.
Professional borrowers who keep cost, programme and exit in one model get faster answers. The desk notices when the numbers add up. It also notices when GDV, cost and drawdown live in three different spreadsheets that disagree.
How brokers should send the pack to StatusKWO
Use the same discipline as a general bridging pack. One zip. Named files. Contents list at the top.
Include the one-page deal summary. Dated elemental cost plan. Contingency and prelims split. Contractor quote or tender summary. Programme with milestones. Planning decision and approved plans. Building control route and any approvals already held. Surveys that affect cost. Drawdown schedule matched to the cost plan. GDV appraisal. Named exit with dates. Borrower and guarantor identity. Source of funds for equity. Title and existing charge list.
Start with the decision in principle engine when you already know the loan, term and security. Attach the cost and drawdown folder in the same go. Do not wait for credit to ask for the obvious elemental split. Brokers who send the cost plan first get fewer question loops.
Keep collecting while the DIP is out. A returned tender, a discharged pre-commencement condition or a monitoring surveyor CV can land in the same week as the valuation. Files that pause for a perfect pack often miss the week when the contractor could still hold the price.
Brokers who work StatusKWO files regularly should keep one folder structure across schemes. Credit hates rebuilding five different cost-plan naming conventions when the same developer is already known. Consistency today saves a week when the next site arrives.
If the enquiry is still a light refurbishment that truly belongs on a short bridge, say so and send a costed schedule rather than a full development monitor pack. Mis-labelling a paint-and-kitchen job as staged development finance wastes everyone’s first day. Mis-labelling a rebuild as a bridge wastes the next six.
Frequently asked questions
Can StatusKWO price development finance from a single round-sum works figure?
Rarely. A DIP may sketch terms from a clear appraisal, but works draws need an elemental cost plan, contingency and a drawdown schedule a monitor can certify against. Round numbers come back as questions.
Is a builder’s text message enough evidence of cost?
No. Credit wants a written quotation or accepted tender that matches the cost plan elements. Verbal budgets stall the first release even when the site looks busy.
Do planning permission and building regulations approval mean the same thing?
No. Planning deals with the principle and form of development. Building regulations deal with technical compliance as works proceed. GOV.UK treats them as separate regimes. Many schemes need both sets of papers in the pack.
How do drawdowns usually work on a specialist development facility?
Cash is released in stages against certified progress, not as a single upfront works advance. The schedule should match the cost plan. Retentions, fees and interest still sit inside the facility maths.
Where should brokers start with StatusKWO on a works-led file?
Open a decision in principle with the site, loan, term, GDV and exit, then attach the cost plan, contractor evidence, programme, planning and building control papers and the proposed drawdown schedule in one submission. A clean cost pack is faster than a long covering story.
