Barclays offers property development finance to help fund the development of a land or property, which is then sold for profit. The land or property is used to secure the loan and Barclays requires the site to have planning permission before work can commence.

The funding is released at agreed stages as development work is completed, this is different to commercial mortgages or buy to let mortgages, which gives the loan up front. The percentages taken at each stage is drawn down based on Barclay’s surveyor reports.

Property development finance is available to Individuals, Limited liability partnerships, and limited companies. And each scheme will want to be placed in an SPV (special purpose vehicle), which is a limited company formed with the sole purpose of developing a single site.

The property development loans are useful even if the property developer has enough funding for their project, as it allows them to develop more sites with the same amount of equity, which enables an increased profit for the long run. It also allows the property developer to spread the risk should there be a downturn in the market.

Loans offered by Barclays are on residential, commercial property and semi-commercial properties. Loans can also be arranged for land with or without planning permission.

A loan is usually taken out for a period of 12 months, and for smaller builds as little as 3-6 months. It’s only in rare cases that Barclays will agree to lend for anything longer than 18 months.

The upper borrow limit is limitless, but the very minimum is £50k. On average most loans fall into the £200k to £5m range.

This type of loan is mainly available to experienced property developers, however, there is a chance to still be accepted as someone with less experience, so long as you can demonstrate your ability to tackle development in a professional manner.

Barclays application process is very simple, and a result will be available almost immediately.