Development exit finance calculator

How the saving is worked out

The calculator runs the same balance through two facilities over the months you expect the remaining units to take to sell. The staying leg compounds your current development rate (entered per year, charged monthly, rolled up) on the outstanding balance; the refinancing leg compounds the exit facility's monthly rate on the same balance. The difference is the interest saved, and the net saving deducts the new facility's arrangement fee, charged on the full new loan including any equity release. Two things make the result deliberately conservative. First, most exit facilities take a part-redemption as each unit sells, so the balance, and with it the interest, steps down through the term rather than running in full to the final sale. Second, the comparison assumes your development lender simply lets the facility run on at its normal rate; in practice an expired facility often carries extension fees or a default rate, which makes staying more expensive than modelled. If you enter an equity release, its interest is shown separately rather than folded into the saving, because raising extra cash is new borrowing you have chosen, not part of the like-for-like comparison. Every figure is indicative; the lender sets real terms after valuing the stock.

Why exit money is cheaper than staying on development finance

Development finance is priced for the riskiest phase of a scheme: staged drawdowns, a monitoring surveyor, no income and a building that is worth less than its costs until it is finished. Once the scheme reaches practical completion that risk has largely gone. The lender on an exit facility is looking at finished, warrantied, sellable stock, which is much closer to standard bridging security, and the pricing follows: development money commonly runs 9% to 13% a year rolled up, while exit money runs around 0.55% to 0.9% a month.

The second driver is the clock. A development facility is sized to the build programme plus a sales allowance, and when that allowance runs out the incumbent lender's patience gets expensive: extension fees, repricing, and eventually default rates. That deadline pressure is also what forces developers to discount units to hit a redemption date. An exit facility resets the clock at a lower rate, so you can hold out for full sale prices instead of selling into a deadline.

The third reason is the next site. Because completed stock supports a higher loan than a part-built scheme, an exit facility can repay the development debt and release equity on day one, putting your profit to work on the next purchase months before the last unit completes.

What actually drives the rate and the decision

Exit lenders underwrite the stock and the sales story more than the borrower. The main levers are:

Completion status. A scheme with its practical completion certificate and new-build warranty in place prices best. Wind-and-watertight with works remaining narrows the lender pool, usually with a retention held for the outstanding items.

The LTV. The calculator shows your new loan against the aggregate value of the unsold units; most lenders cap around 70% to 75%, and pricing sharpens well below the cap. A large equity release that pushes the LTV toward the ceiling costs more than a modest one.

Sales evidence. Units already under offer, a credible local comparables story and a realistic sales rate reassure the lender that the facility redeems inside the term. An optimistic schedule of one sale a week in a slow market does the opposite.

Unit mix and lot size. Six family houses at £200,000 each sell into a deeper market than one £1.2 million penthouse, so concentration in a few large lots prices up.

Track record. A developer who has delivered and sold comparable schemes is a better redemption risk than a first-time exit, and the rate reflects it.

How much you can borrow, and what lenders look for

UK development exit facilities typically run from a few hundred thousand pounds to tens of millions, over 6 to 18 months, at up to 70% to 75% of the aggregate value of the unsold stock, to a limited-company (usually SPV) borrower with personal guarantees from the directors. The facility redeems unit by unit: each sale pays the lender an agreed release amount per plot, with the surplus flowing to you, so the balance and the interest step down as the scheme sells. To move a case quickly, have ready the practical completion certificate (or a clear position on what remains), the warranty cover, a schedule of accommodation with plot-by-plot pricing, your sales and marketing evidence (agents' appraisals, units under offer, viewing activity), and a redemption statement from the current lender so the day-one figure is exact. Lenders are answering two questions: is the stock genuinely finished and sellable at the values claimed, and will the sales programme redeem the facility inside the term. Any figure discussed before a formal offer is indicative; the loan, rate and term are the lender's decision.

How we help you get a sharper rate

A development exit is one of the easier wins in property finance when it is structured well, and our job as your broker is to line it up before a lender sees the file.

We take it to the right lender first. Exit money sits in a specialist corner of the market: bridging books with development appetite, development lenders' own exit products and a handful of challenger banks, each with different sweet spots by scheme size, region and lot mix. We hold that criteria detail across our panel, so we point your case at the lenders most likely to price it keenly rather than working through the market one enquiry at a time.

We structure the deal to price well. We will set the term to your realistic sales rate rather than the longest available, negotiate the per-unit release mechanics so early sales cut the interest bill fastest, position the LTV where the pricing bands sit, and size any equity release so it does not push the whole facility into a worse band.

We tell you straight what is realistic. Refinancing is not always the answer: on a short remaining sales period the arrangement fee and legals can eat the saving, and a negotiated extension with the incumbent is sometimes the honest move. We will model both and show you the numbers. It costs nothing, and there is no obligation. Send us the scheme and the redemption figure and we will come back with indicative terms from lenders whose criteria fit.