What Gross Development Value Is
You’ll meet GDV as the headline number in every development appraisal: the projected total value of your scheme once it’s complete and sold, or valued, at market rates. Most development lending metrics anchor to it.
Your GDV has to be realistic, because everything hangs off it: overstate it and you end up with a loan the finished scheme can’t service or repay once the real values land.
You’re pricing a projection, not a promise, and a projection can be right about the price and still wrong about the time. Units that sell at exactly the figure in your appraisal, three months later than it assumed, stretch your cash flow just as hard as a price cut would.
How GDV Is Calculated
You calculate it from what the finished scheme sells for. On a residential development, GDV is the expected sale price per unit multiplied by the number of units, so 10 units at £350,000 gives a GDV of £3,500,000.
Your GDV is worth what a valuer says, not what your appraisal says. For finance, the lender instructs its own independent valuer, usually a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) registered valuer, and lends against that figure, which makes your own estimate a planning tool rather than a lending number.
A valuation that comes back under the appraisal doesn’t simply trim the loan, it moves the shortfall onto you. A £4m appraisal valued at £3.6m takes £260,000 off a 65% facility, and that £260,000 has to come out of your own cash flow before the first brick is laid.
How Lenders Use GDV
You’ll see lenders cap their exposure as a percentage of GDV, the loan-to-GDV ratio. Two lenders publish their own: Business Lending Development Funding (BLG) caps a stretch senior loan at 65% of GDV, or 75% once rolled-up interest is counted, and Maslow at 70%. Broker guidance puts senior debt at 55 to 65% and a senior-plus-mezzanine stack at 85 to 90% in total, though no lender publishes that last figure.
At a 65% ceiling, the cap is really the lender’s safety margin: it keeps them secured even if costs overrun, the market softens, or not every unit sells at the projected price.
The cap bites whatever your costs say. Apply 65% to a £3.5m GDV and the facility tops out near £2.275m, so if total cost comes to £2.6m the missing £325,000 is yours to find from equity or mezzanine before the lender releases anything. Work that gap out first: it decides whether the scheme is fundable long before your cash flow decides whether it’s comfortable.
GDV vs Net Realisation
Keep GDV and net realisation separate in your head. GDV is gross, before sales and marketing, legal fees, agent fees and post-completion costs. Net realisation strips those out and reflects what you actually bank.
Only the net figure tells you whether the scheme is worth doing. Lenders size the loan against GDV, because the gross figure is what secures them, and that’s a different question from whether you should build the thing at all.
You can’t spend the gross figure. Agent and sales costs come off before anything reaches your cash flow. Assume 2 to 3% of GDV and that’s £70,000 to £105,000 on a £3.5m scheme, and on a thin margin that’s the difference between a profit and a year of unpaid work.
GDV for Income-Producing Schemes
You calculate GDV differently when you’re keeping the scheme rather than selling it. For a buy-to-let or build-to-rent development, GDV is the capital value of the finished income-producing asset: the net annual rent divided by the applicable market yield.
Your GDV then moves with yields, not just rents: a higher yield, reflecting more perceived risk, cuts the GDV and squeezes your cash flow on refinance, even when the rent is unchanged.
That’s the risk a build-to-rent appraisal carries and a for-sale one doesn’t: your GDV is set by a market you have no influence over, months after the rents are agreed. Push the rents as high as the market will take, by all means, but budget for the yield moving against you as well as for it moving your way.
GDV FAQs
What is gross development value (GDV)?
Gross development value is the projected total value of a development once it’s complete and either fully sold or valued at market rates. It’s the headline figure in a development appraisal and the primary anchor for most development finance lending metrics. It’s a projection rather than a guarantee: the actual realised values can be higher or lower, and the timing of sales affects cash flow even when prices match the appraisal.
How is GDV calculated?
For a residential development, GDV is the expected sale price per unit multiplied by the number of units (for example, 10 units at £350,000 is a GDV of £3,500,000). For a mixed-use scheme it combines residential sales values with the value of the commercial element. For a retained income-producing scheme, such as build-to-rent, GDV is the net annual rental income divided by the applicable market yield. For finance, the lender relies on its own independent valuation, usually by a RICS registered valuer, rather than the developer’s own estimate.
How do lenders use GDV to size a loan?
Lenders cap their exposure as a percentage of GDV, known as loan-to-GDV (LTGDV). Where lenders publish a figure it is at the lower end: BLG caps stretch senior at 65% of GDV, or 75% with rolled-up interest, and Maslow at 70%. Senior debt at 55 to 65% and a senior-plus-mezzanine stack at 85 to 90% come from broker guidance rather than a lender’s own page. The cap exists to keep the lender secured if costs overrun, the market softens, or not all units sell at projected prices. On a £3.5m GDV, a 65% cap gives a maximum of about £2.275m of debt.
What is the difference between GDV and net realisation?
GDV is a gross figure: it doesn’t deduct sales and marketing costs, legal fees, estate agent fees or post-completion professional costs. Net realisation (or net realisable value) subtracts those costs and reflects what the developer actually receives. Lenders size the loan against GDV, but developers should assess genuine viability against net realisation, because sales and agent costs can be significant on a larger scheme: at an assumed 2 to 3% of GDV, that’s £70,000 to £105,000 on £3.5m.
How we reviewed gross development value
What we covered. We explain gross development value in 2026: what it is, how it’s calculated for sale and retained schemes, how lenders cap lending against it, and how it differs from net realisation. We don’t rely on comparison-site summaries or aggregator data.
Data sources. Loan-to-GDV ranges were checked in October 2026 against two lenders’ own published terms, BLG’s stretch senior and Maslow Capital’s development finance, plus specialist broker guidance, RICS valuation practice and the lenders we assess in our development finance reviews and roundup. No lender publishes a market-wide range, and the broker guide we read gives stretch senior two different figures in two places, so treat every range as typical rather than fixed.
How we handle gaps. Where a figure varies by lender, we give the market range rather than a single false-precision number, and we flag that your GDV depends on the scheme, the comparables and the valuer.
Update cadence. We re-verify this page regularly, and whenever market pricing moves. The verification date reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.
Regulatory note. This page is editorial content, not regulated financial advice. Development finance to a limited company or investor is generally unregulated lending, so compare facilities and read the terms before you sign.