Construction financed properly — drawdowns to take-out.

Unlike a standard commercial loan, a construction loan doesn't fund as a single drawdown. It funds in stages — usually five or six — tied to progress on site. Each stage triggers a quantity-surveyor inspection, a valuation reassessment, and a release of funds. Get the drawdown schedule wrong, or hit a cost overrun the QS won't sign off on, and the build stops. Get it right and the project flows. We write commercial construction for owner-occupiers building their own premises, for developers running residential or mixed-use sites, and for build-to-rent projects funded against the completed lease income. The lender shortlist depends on which one you're doing. The bank shortlist for owner-occupier builds runs across the major and second-tier banks. For developers with three to twenty units: second-tier banks, plus the specialist non-banks for thinner-presale deals. The sequence we engineer typically looks like this: site acquisition loan (often the existing property or a separate land loan), construction loan covering build only, end-debt take-out into either an investment loan (for build-to-keep) or residual stock (for build-to-sell). The construction loan refinances cleanly into the take-out at practical completion. If the take-out lender is different from the construction lender — which is common — we line both up at the same time.