Up to 80% of project end-value — funded by specialist lenders who understand development, not just home loans. From a single duplex on a corner block to a national-scale unit project, we structure the capital stack properly so your feasibility actually works.
Property development is harder than it looks and easier than it should be. The hard part is the project itself — the design, the builder, the council, the contractor delays, the cost overruns, the ten thousand small decisions between buying the dirt and handing over the keys. The bit that should be easier is the finance.
We work with about a dozen specialist lenders who actually understand development — senior debt, mezzanine, residual stock, the lot — across every style of project. From small infill townhouse builds in Perth's middle-ring suburbs to land subdivisions, apartment buildings, mixed-use developments and large-scale residential estates. Whatever you're building, we'll structure the funding so the project's economics actually work — and we'll do it in days, not weeks.
The bank wanted 70% pre-sales before they'd release a dollar. Pilbara structured an 80% end-value facility with no pre-sales — we were on site two weeks later.
Three things that make a real difference between a project that goes ahead and one that doesn't.
Most major banks lend up to about 65% of what your finished project will be worth — meaning you have to find more equity to make the deal work. We work with specialist lenders who go up to 80% of end-value, freeing up your cash to start the next project rather than tying it all up in this one. On a $5 million completed project, that difference is $750,000 of equity you don't have to put on the table.
The big banks want most of your stock pre-sold before they'll release a dollar — months of marketing, agent fees, and off-the-plan discounts to hit their threshold. Most of our specialist lenders assess the project's fundamentals — the site, the build, the margin, the exit — rather than how many units you've sold from a brochure. You get on site faster and sell at full retail when the project's complete.
Every project has its own shape. A small infill townhouse build wants clean senior debt and a fast settlement. A larger apartment project might need senior debt plus a mezzanine layer to maximise leverage and preserve developer equity. A subdivision wants staged drawdowns matched to civil works milestones. We structure the capital stack to fit the project — not the other way around — and we know which lender prices each layer most sharply.
Major bank development deals typically take 8–12 weeks from formal application to settlement. We move at a different pace. Send through the basics — site, builder, feasibility, equity — and you'll have an indicative read the same day. Clean deals settle in 2–3 weeks. Larger or more complex projects in 4–6.
Three steps. We move at the pace your project needs.
Send through what you've got — site address, planning approvals, builder quotes, end-value estimates, and your equity position. We'll run the feasibility properly: Total Development Cost (TDC) against project end-value, project margin, equity contribution, and the realistic loan amount we can fund against. If the numbers don't stack up, we'll tell you exactly what would need to change.
Specialist development lenders are not interchangeable. One prices aggressively for clean six-unit residential projects. Another wants larger apartment deals with strong pre-sales. Another is comfortable with first-time developers on smaller infill projects. We know each lender's sweet spot and shop your project to the one most likely to fund it cleanly at the sharpest pricing. You see two or three real options side by side, all-in costs laid out clearly.
Most specialist development deals settle in 2–3 weeks from formal application. Funds release in stages tied to construction milestones — slab, frame, lock-up, completion. We stay on the deal through the build, manage the drawdown schedule with the lender, and structure the exit (sell-down, residual stock, or refinance to a held-asset facility) before the project completes.
Tell us TDC, GRV, lender type and term. We'll show your loan amount, equity required, project margin and indicative interest reserve — plus how the three lender bands compare.
Project type and total development cost — land + construction + soft costs + reserve.
Gross realisation value (GRV) at completion, and how much stock is locked in.
Pre-sales drive lender appetite. Major banks usually want 60–100% pre-sold by GRV. Specialist non-banks can fund 0% pre-sales but price for the risk.
Loan-to-GRV cap, loan-to-cost cap, and indicative rate band all change.
Lower LVR + sharper rate with major banks; higher leverage + faster with specialists. The right answer depends on your equity, your timeline, and your appetite for the rate.
How long until exit (sales settle), and the indicative rate.
Rate auto-snaps to the lender band's mid-point when you change lender, unless you've manually overridden it.
Return on equity (ROE) = profit ÷ equity. Interest reserve assumes 60% average drawdown over the term — actual will differ based on your draw schedule.
Same TDC, GRV and term — different LVR caps, LCR caps and rate bands. Major banks lend least at the sharpest rate; specialist non-banks lend most at the highest rate. The "right" answer depends on whether you can supply equity or whether you need leverage to make the deal happen.
Have a quick chat with a Pilbara Finance broker. We'll review your feasibility, match your project to the right lender band, structure the equity stack and the drawdown schedule, and have indicative terms in your hands fast.
Estimates only. This calculator does not assess credit and is not a credit offer. Loan is capped by the tighter of loan-to-value ratio (LVR) on GRV — Major 65% / Tier 2 70% / Specialist 80% — or loan-to-cost ratio (LCR) on Total Development Cost (Major 75% / Tier 2 80% / Specialist 85%). Interest reserve is approximated as principal × rate × term × 0.6 (60% average drawdown). Real feasibility depends on the site, builder, exit, equity quality and lender appetite for your asset class. Pilbara Equities Pty Ltd, CRN 478535, of Mortgage Specialists Pty Ltd, ACL 387025.
Six things every developer should be across before signing a finance term sheet.
Project end-value — sometimes called Gross Realisation Value or GRV — is what your project will be worth once it's complete and ready to sell. Six townhouses at $720,000 each gives you a project end-value of $4.32 million.
A specialist lender willing to fund up to 80% of that figure will write a loan up to $3.456 million for the project — covering most of your land plus most of your construction costs in one facility. The major banks typically max out around 65% of the same end-value figure, meaning a $2.8 million loan on the same project. The difference — about $650,000 — is equity you'd otherwise have to find. That's the core of why specialist development finance exists.
Pre-sales are unconditional sales contracts on completed units, signed before the project finishes. Major banks usually want 70–100% of construction debt covered by pre-sales before they'll release the construction loan. That sounds prudent, but it has a cost: pre-sales are usually struck at 5–10% below post-completion retail because buyers are taking on construction risk.
Many of our specialist lenders accept much lower pre-sale requirements — sometimes none at all — for projects with strong fundamentals: experienced developer, fixed-price builder contract, healthy project margin, clear path to selling stock once it's built. The trade-off is a slightly higher rate, but the maths usually works in the developer's favour because you're capturing the full retail price on every unit. We model both paths and tell you which one wins on your specific project.
Bigger projects often use multiple finance layers stacked together. The bottom layer is senior debt — the main loan, secured by a first mortgage on the property, lowest rate, lowest risk to the lender. If senior debt covers 65–75% of the project, mezzanine finance can sometimes fill the gap up to 85% or more — it sits behind the senior debt in repayment order, takes more risk, and prices accordingly (usually mid to high teens). On top of that sits your developer equity — the cash and skin you've put in yourself.
The right capital stack depends on the project size, your equity position, and what return you're chasing. We've structured plenty of single-layer senior debt deals for smaller projects and full multi-layer stacks for larger ones. We tell you straight what your project actually needs, not what's most profitable to write.
Five things, in roughly this order:
Site economics — what you paid for the land relative to the project's end-value. Project margin — the gap between TDC and end-value, with 20% being a typical minimum. Builder quality — fixed-price contracts with credentialled head contractors carry a lot of weight. Developer track record — completed projects in similar typologies open the cheapest pricing, but first-timers are still fundable with strong fundamentals. Exit strategy — how the loan gets paid out at the end (sale of stock, refinance to a long-term loan, or both).
Get those five right and the deal becomes fundable in days. Get them wrong and no rate in the world will save it. We pressure-test all five upfront before lodging anything.
A common myth in development finance is that you need three completed projects on your CV before any specialist lender will look at you. Not true. Several lenders on our panel actively work with first-time developers on smaller, well-structured projects — typically 2 to 6 units, infill or duplex sites, with a fixed-price builder, realistic feasibility, and the developer wearing genuine equity.
The pricing is a touch higher than for repeat developers, but the deal gets done. We'll tell you upfront whether your first project is a fit for specialist lending or whether you'd be better off starting with a smaller proof-of-concept project to build the track record.
New dwelling commencements in WA landed in the high teens (around 17,000) for 2025 — well below the pre-COVID average of roughly 25,000 a year. Active Perth sales listings have been tracking well below typical equilibrium, median time on market for well-priced stock is short (under two weeks), vacancy rates remain extremely tight, and population growth is running ahead of long-run trend.
None of this is news if you're already in development. But the macro picture is genuinely supporting projects right now — there's strong absorption for completed product across most metros and many regional WA centres, and that's reflected in lender appetite. Funded the right way, well-located WA projects are landing strongly. We're seeing specialist lenders compete actively for clean deals, and that competition is showing up in pricing.
How we got Sarah's six-townhouse infill project funded at 78% of end-value, with no pre-sales required.
Sarah had been a residential investor for eight years and decided to step into development. She'd picked up a 1,200m² site in Bayswater zoned R30, with development approval (DA) in place for six four-bedroom townhouses. Land cost $880,000, fixed-price build $1.95M, soft costs and contingency $270,000 — TDC of $3.1M. Each townhouse was forecast to sell at $720,000, putting GRV at $4.32M and project margin at ~39%. Her main bank wanted 70% of construction debt covered by pre-sales — meaning 4–6 months of marketing, off-the-plan discounts of around 5% per townhouse, and roughly $200,000 left on the table before the first slab was poured.
We sat down with Sarah on a Wednesday. The fixed-price contract was clean, her equity was real cash plus the unencumbered land, and her project margin was genuinely strong. We took the deal to a specialist lender that funds well-prepared first-time developers, and structured a 78% of end-value senior debt facility — $3.37M — with no pre-sale requirements. Settlement landed 14 days later. Construction kicked off two weeks after that. Fourteen months from settlement, Sarah handed over the first townhouse. All six sold within four months at full retail (averaging $735,000 — slightly above feasibility). Total profit cleared just over $1.1 million.
Composite scenario built from multiple real Pilbara Finance small-scale residential development transactions. Names, locations and identifying details are illustrative; the timeline, structure and pricing reflect the kind of outcomes our specialist development lender panel produces in 2026.
The questions that come up on every project intro call.
Send through the basics — site, project type, approximate numbers, your equity position. We'll come back inside a business day with a clear read on whether the project is fundable, what the loan would look like, and how fast we could get it across the line.
Real reviews from real Google. No curated screenshots, no cherry-picked quotes.
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Tell us about the project — site, planning status, builder quote, feasibility numbers, your equity position. We'll come back inside a business day with the loan amount we can fund, the structure we'd recommend, the all-in cost, and the realistic timeline to settlement. If your project is genuinely fundable, we'll tell you which of our specialist lenders we'd take it to and why. If it isn't yet, we'll tell you what would need to change.
"Funded our six-townhouse project at 78% of GRV with no pre-sales. Bank had wanted three. Settlement landed in 14 days."
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