Roma Finance Development Finance Review (2026): Rates, Eligibility and Verdict

Roma Finance at a Glance

Our Verdict

Roma Finance has been writing short-term property loans since 2008, and its development book sits inside the RomaGROW channel alongside the commercial development product it launched in mid-2025. It is not chasing the institutional end of the market. The development range is built for experienced residential and light commercial developers working on schemes up to roughly £5m, and that is where it competes well: published rate floors, no exit fees on bridging, and an underwriting team that will actually read a deal rather than score it.

What stands out is genuine. Most specialist lenders still expect you to call before they will quote a number; Roma publishes its floors—0.89% per month for ground-up development, 1.00% for commercial development—which lets you model a deal before you commit anyone’s time. Zero exit fees on standard bridging cuts the drag at repayment. The RomaFLOW channel targets seven-to-twenty-eight-day completions on simpler transactions, which is the sort of timeline that matters when an auction clock is running. And Roma’s stated philosophy of underwriting the borrower before the property is more than a tagline: it means SPVs, complex ownership structures, and self-employed borrowers get a conversation rather than an instant decline.

The honest limits are scale and product depth. Roma’s development range works well for sub-£5m schemes; it does not compete with institutional lenders on larger commercial development. Published criteria for experience and GDV caps are indicative, and the rate you actually get is set deal by deal. Roma states that 100% of its Trustpilot reviews are five-star, but the total review count was not publicly confirmed when we wrote this, so treat that figure as a claim rather than a verified data point. On balance: a credible, broker-friendly option for residential and light commercial development at the smaller end of the professional market.

Best For

• Experienced residential developers working on ground-up schemes up to approximately £5m
• Property investors and developers who want published rate floors before engaging a lender
• Borrowers with complex ownership structures (SPVs, limited companies) that struggle with templated credit models
• Developers needing a fast bridging exit or developer exit facility alongside a build facility
• HMO conversions and heavy refurbishment projects that sit between standard buy-to-let and ground-up development

Not Ideal For

• Large commercial development schemes above £5m — Roma’s product ceilings and LTGDV limits are not built for institutional scale
• First-time developers with no track record — Roma requires meaningful development experience for its development products
• Borrowers looking for a long-term investment mortgage — Roma’s products are short-term by design
• Borrowers outside England, Scotland, and Wales — Roma does not lend in Northern Ireland or internationally

Key Facts

What Is Roma Finance Development Finance?

How Roma Finance Development Finance Works

Roma is a short-term property lender, not a long-term mortgage provider. Its development finance is for borrowers who are building or converting property to sell or refinance, and the facility is structured as a staged drawdown: an initial tranche covers site acquisition or early build costs, and further tranches are released as a monitoring surveyor signs off each milestone. Interest is rolled up rather than serviced monthly, so you are not paying it out of cash flow during the build; the full rolled-up amount is repaid from sale proceeds or a refinance at the end of the term.

The three-channel structure is essentially how Roma routes deals internally. RomaFLOW handles speed-driven residential bridging and the simpler transactions where seven-to-twenty-eight-day completion is the goal. RomaGROW covers the development book—ground-up, refurbishment, the new commercial development product, and commercial bridging. RomaPRO sits behind both, picking up the unusual structures and non-standard borrower profiles that need a more bespoke look. In practice, a broker submitting a development deal will land in RomaGROW unless the case is complex enough to warrant the PRO treatment.

Ground-Up Development vs Heavy Refurbishment

Roma draws a clear distinction between ground-up development finance and refurbishment lending, with pricing and underwriting criteria that reflect the different risk profiles of each.

Ground-up development is for borrowers building from scratch—residential units, small commercial buildings, or mixed-use schemes on a cleared or part-cleared site. It carries the highest rate floor in the Roma range (from 0.89% per month) because the lender is exposed to planning, build, and sales risk at the same time. Loan sizes for residential ground-up sit within Roma’s standard product range, and LTGDV is capped at 65% to keep meaningful headroom against GDV.

Heavy refurbishment and HMO conversion sit in the middle. The structure is already there but the works are significant—structural alterations, change of use, extensions, or converting a single dwelling into an HMO or commercial space into residential. Roma prices this between light refurbishment (from 0.79% per month) and ground-up, recognising that build risk is lower than a cleared site but higher than a cosmetic refurb. Light refurbishment covers cosmetic and non-structural work on habitable property and carries the lowest product rate outside residential bridging.

Main Loan Options

Roma’s full product range for developers and investors covers the following:

• Ground-up development finance — residential and commercial new-build schemes, staged drawdowns, from 0.89%/month (residential) and 1.00%/month (commercial)
• Heavy refurbishment finance — structural works, conversions, HMO creation; staged drawdowns where needed
• Light and medium refurbishment — cosmetic to moderate works on occupied or vacant property; from 0.79%/month
• HMO conversion finance — specialist product for converting single dwellings or commercial property to licensed HMO use
• Commercial development finance (new, June 2025) — £250,000–£2.5m, up to 65% LTGDV, from 1.00%/month
• Developer exit finance — refinances a development facility while units are in sales, releasing equity or paying off an expiring build loan
• Bridging finance — £75,000–£3m, up to 75% LTV, from 0.59%/month; zero exit fees on standard bridging
• Buy-to-let finance — for stabilised investment properties post-development or post-refurbishment
• Revolving Credit Facility (new, April 2025) — secured against existing property, up to 65% LTV; intended for developers who want a flexible capital line rather than a deal-by-deal facility

Roma Finance Development Finance Rates and Fees

Interest Rates and Arrangement Fees

Publishing rate floors at all is unusual in this part of the market, where the standard answer to “what does it cost?” is still “call us.” Roma quotes floors across the range, which gives you a starting point for cost modelling. The rate you actually get will move from there based on your experience, loan-to-cost (LTC), LTGDV, site type, and overall deal complexity.

Published monthly rate floors as at the time of this review:

• Residential bridging: from 0.59%/month
• Light refurbishment: from 0.79%/month
• Ground-up development finance: from 0.89%/month
• Commercial development finance: from 1.00%/month

Arrangement fees are a percentage of the facility and are typically deducted from the initial drawdown. Roma does not publish a standard percentage; it is set per deal. For specialist short-term development lenders, arrangement fees usually fall in the 1.5%–2% range, though that varies with deal complexity and loan size.

Interest on development facilities is rolled up rather than serviced monthly. This is standard for construction loans: you are not feeding interest payments out of cash flow during the build, and the full rolled-up amount is taken from drawdowns or repaid at exit alongside the principal.

Additional Fees and Charges

Beyond the arrangement fee and interest rate, development finance borrowers should expect the following cost items:

• Valuation fee — an independent RICS valuation of the site and appraisal of GDV is required before completion; cost varies by property type and location, typically £1,500–£3,000+
• Monitoring surveyor fee — Roma appoints a monitoring surveyor to inspect the site and verify each drawdown request; costs are typically shared between lender and borrower and vary by scheme size and number of drawdown stages
• Legal fees — Roma instructs its own solicitors; borrowers also require independent legal advice. Dual representation costs are a standard feature of development finance transactions
• Exit fees — Roma charges zero exit fees on standard residential, semi-commercial, and commercial bridging. The position on development finance exit fees should be confirmed with Roma or a broker during the terms stage
• Broker fee — if the transaction is introduced through a broker, a separate procuration or broker fee may apply

What Affects Your Rate

The gap between Roma’s published floor and the rate you are actually offered can be wide on more complex or higher-risk deals. The variables that determine where on the range a deal lands include:

• Borrower experience — a track record of completed development schemes of comparable scale is the single most important factor; first-time developers will pay more or may not qualify for the development products at all
• Loan-to-GDV and loan-to-cost — lower leverage means lower risk for the lender and typically a lower rate; higher LTC or LTGDV pushes the price up
• Site and planning status — schemes with full planning permission in place carry less uncertainty than those relying on conditional or outline consent
• Exit route — sales-based exits are standard for residential development; commercial schemes or those with a refinance exit may be assessed differently
• Loan size — larger facilities within Roma’s range may attract keener pricing; very small loan amounts may be assessed at the upper end of the rate range
• Scheme type and complexity — commercial development, mixed-use, or unusual build types carry a higher rate than straightforward residential

Roma Finance Development Finance Eligibility

Who Can Apply

Roma states that it lends to a broad range of property borrowers—property investors, developers, tradespeople, and professionals. On the entity side, it accepts sole traders, limited companies, LLPs, and SPVs. That last category matters more than it sounds. A lot of development schemes are run through an SPV for tax and liability reasons, and Roma’s willingness to lend to newly incorporated SPVs where the borrower has a demonstrable track record is a real practical advantage over lenders that apply blanket seasoning rules to company borrowers.

Development finance is mostly aimed at borrowers with a meaningful track record. This is not a first-timer’s product on ground-up schemes, and the level of experience required will scale with the size and complexity of the project. Self-employed borrowers and those with non-standard income are within scope: Roma’s manual underwriting means income and serviceability are looked at case by case rather than against an automated threshold.

Roma lends across England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland is not covered. There is no stated minimum or maximum age requirement beyond standard legal capacity to contract.

Experience, GDV and Loan-to-Cost Requirements

On ground-up development, Roma expects to see prior development experience. What counts is the number and scale of completed schemes, ideally of a similar type to the one you are proposing. A sole trader who has converted two HMOs and is applying for a refurbishment facility will be assessed differently from a developer with completed residential new-build schemes applying for ground-up development finance.

Maximum LTGDV on development products is 65%, meaning the facility cannot exceed 65% of the gross development value of the completed scheme as assessed by an independent RICS valuer—not your own appraisal. Loan-to-cost (LTC), the size of the facility relative to total build cost including land, is looked at alongside LTGDV; lenders generally want LTC to leave meaningful equity in the deal throughout the build.

The new commercial development finance product (launched June 2025) covers loan amounts from £250,000 to £2.5m, with a maximum LTGDV of 65%. This product is aimed at developers building commercial or mixed-use assets and is priced from 1.00% per month to reflect the additional complexity and market risk of commercial exits.

Site, Planning and Professional Team Requirements

Roma’s standard requirement is that the planning permission needed to carry out the proposed works is in place before the facility completes. For ground-up development, that usually means full planning. Schemes relying on conditional consent or permitted development rights are looked at on their merits, but any uncertainty around planning will show up in pricing and in the lender’s comfort with the deal structure.

A monitoring surveyor is appointed by Roma for all development facilities. The borrower is required to have a professional team in place, including a project manager or main contractor with relevant experience, a structural engineer where required by the build programme, and their own solicitor. Roma’s underwriters will assess the quality of the professional team as part of the overall credit decision, not just the financial metrics of the scheme.

Roma Finance Development Finance Application Process

How to Apply

Roma takes applications directly and through introducing brokers. The broker channel matters: a large share of Roma’s deal flow comes through property finance brokers who specialise in short-term lending, and on development finance specifically, going through an experienced specialist broker is usually the most efficient route to a credit decision. Brokers who know Roma’s criteria will know which deals fit and how to present complex cases effectively.

Direct applications are handled through Roma’s website and BDM team. The two senior business development manager appointments in October 2025 signal a deliberate push to increase direct and broker-introduced deal flow. The RomaFLOW fast-track is available for simpler bridging transactions, with a target window of seven to twenty-eight days from application for qualifying deals.

For development finance the timeline from initial enquiry to first drawdown is longer than for straight bridging, which reflects the extra complexity of construction loan underwriting, site valuation, and legal work. Indicative terms can usually be issued quickly; full credit approval and completion takes longer and depends on how fast you can get the documents in.

Documents, Appraisals and Checks Needed

Roma’s underwriting team will typically require the following to progress a development finance application to credit decision:

• Development appraisal or project financial model showing total costs (land, build, professional fees, finance costs) and projected GDV
• Full planning permission documents or evidence of permitted development rights
• Architect’s drawings and building specification (or equivalent at pre-planning stage for outline applications)
• Contractor or build cost schedule, ideally from a named main contractor; Roma’s monitoring surveyor will review build costs independently
• Evidence of the borrower’s development track record (details of completed comparable schemes)
• Personal identification and proof of address for all directors, beneficial owners, and guarantors
• Company documents (certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles, register of persons with significant control) for limited company and SPV applicants
• Evidence of deposit or equity contribution; for development finance, the borrower’s own capital contribution is required to establish LTC
• Solicitor details for the borrower’s legal team

Roma will instruct an independent RICS valuation of the site and a GDV appraisal; the cost of this valuation is typically passed to the borrower. For development facilities, Roma also appoints a monitoring surveyor before the first drawdown; details of the surveyor and fee structure are provided at offer stage.

Credit Decision and First Drawdown

Once the credit team has worked through the application and supporting documents, Roma issues a formal offer letter setting out the facility amount, LTGDV, rate, fees, term, and drawdown conditions. Legal work then runs in parallel between Roma’s solicitors and yours. The facility completes—and the first drawdown is released—once legal conditions are met, the monitoring surveyor has confirmed build readiness, and any other conditions precedent in the offer are satisfied.

The first drawdown commonly covers land acquisition (if not already owned) or the first build stage. Subsequent drawdowns are triggered by monitoring surveyor inspections confirming that work has progressed to the agreed milestone.

Drawdowns, Monitoring and Repayment

How Staged Drawdowns Work

Development finance does not release the full loan at completion. The facility is split into tranches that line up with the build programme. At each stage you submit a drawdown request to Roma’s monitoring surveyor, who inspects the site, confirms progress against the agreed schedule, and certifies the value of work completed. Roma then releases the next tranche against that certificate.

The number and size of drawdowns is agreed at the outset as part of the facility structure. A simple scheme might have three or four; larger or more complex builds will have more. Each drawdown reduces the undrawn balance of the facility, and interest on the drawn balance accrues and rolls up rather than being paid monthly.

The drawdown schedule is the main tool Roma uses to manage construction risk. If a borrower falls behind on the build programme or the surveyor flags defects or cost overruns, Roma can hold back the next drawdown until things are resolved. That protects the lender, but it also gives the borrower a structured framework for managing cash flow through the build.

Monitoring Surveyor and Build Milestones

Roma appoints its own monitoring surveyor—independent of both Roma and the borrower—for all development facilities. The surveyor reviews the build cost schedule before completion (to confirm the agreed loan amount is enough and that LTC has been assessed accurately), then inspects the site at each drawdown stage to certify progress and confirm whether the next tranche should be released.

The surveyor also flags cost-overrun risk. If actual costs are tracking above the agreed schedule, that gets reported back to Roma. The lender will then work through it with the borrower: whether the overrun can be absorbed from contingency, whether more equity is needed, or whether the facility terms need restructuring.

The practical takeaway for borrowers is to build a realistic contingency into the programme. Ten to fifteen per cent of total build costs is the usual benchmark for residential development. Facilities agreed without enough contingency are far more likely to hit drawdown delays once costs creep, and they always do.

Loan Term, Interest and Repayment at Exit

Roma’s development facilities are short-term, typically structured with terms of six to twenty-four months depending on the build programme and exit timeline. The term should cover the full build period plus a realistic sales or refinance window. Experienced borrowers build a margin into the term at application, knowing that construction projects almost always run a little longer than the headline programme suggests.

Interest rolls up into the facility rather than being serviced monthly, which is standard for construction loans and means cash flow during the build is not eaten by interest payments. The full rolled-up interest, plus the principal drawn, is repaid at the end of the term—either from unit sale proceeds (for residential development) or from a refinance onto a longer-term commercial mortgage or investment facility.

On Roma’s standard bridging products, zero exit fees apply to residential, semi-commercial, and commercial transactions, removing the additional cost that some lenders impose at the point of repayment. The exit fee position on development finance facilities should be confirmed at offer stage.

Cost Overruns, Delays and Risk

What Happens If Costs Overrun

Cost overruns are the single most common operational risk in development finance. If actual construction costs run above the agreed build cost schedule, you have a funding gap: the facility is fixed at the amount agreed at the outset, so any extra has to come from somewhere else.

The first line of defence is contingency. A well-structured appraisal includes a contingency allowance (10%–15% of build costs is the standard) to absorb minor overruns without needing a formal change to the facility. If the overrun is bigger than the contingency, you have three options: inject more equity into the scheme, ask Roma to increase the facility (which it may agree to under a formal variation, subject to the revised LTC and LTGDV remaining within acceptable limits), or restructure the scheme to take cost out.

Significant overruns that cannot be resolved through one of those routes turn into a serious problem. If the surveyor certifies that the remaining facility is not enough to finish the build, Roma may not release further drawdowns without additional security or equity. In the worst cases an incomplete development can become a distressed asset. None of this is inevitable; it is what conservative initial appraisal and a real contingency line are there to prevent.

Extensions, Delays and Default Risk

If a development takes longer than the agreed loan term, the borrower must either repay the facility from an alternative source before expiry or apply to Roma for an extension. Lenders will consider extensions where the delay is reasonable and the scheme is on track for a viable exit, but extension terms typically involve additional fees and the rate for the extension period may differ from the original facility rate.

If a borrower cannot repay at the end of the term and Roma does not agree an extension, the facility moves into default. Default gives the lender the right to enforce its security—typically a first legal charge over the development site—which in practice means appointing a receiver or LPA receiver to take control of the asset and realise value. For borrowers, the cost of default is high: penalty interest, enforcement costs, and the potential loss of the site and equity invested in the scheme.

Development finance is unregulated lending for most professional borrowers (limited companies, SPVs, and partnerships borrowing for development purposes fall outside FCA consumer credit regulation as a matter of industry-standard practice), meaning the consumer protection framework that applies to residential mortgages does not apply here. Borrowers should take independent legal advice before completing a development finance transaction.

Roma Finance Development Finance Customer Reviews

What Customers Like

Roma states that 100% of its Trustpilot reviews are five-star. The total number of reviews published was not publicly confirmed at the time of writing, so treat that figure as the company’s own claim rather than something independently verified. With that flagged, the consistent themes in the publicly available positive feedback line up closely with Roma’s stated positioning:

• Speed — borrowers and brokers frequently cite fast credit decisions and quick completions, particularly through the RomaFLOW channel, as Roma’s most tangible operational advantage
• Relationship-based underwriting — the manual underwriting approach means that borrowers with non-standard profiles or complex ownership structures do not immediately hit a hard decline; case handlers engage with the specifics of the deal
• Transparency on pricing — the published rate floors allow brokers and borrowers to model costs before committing time to a full application, which is unusual in the specialist lending market
• Responsiveness — Roma’s BDM and case management teams are cited as accessible and communicative compared with larger lenders where deal progression can stall in credit queues

Common Complaints

Given the claimed all-five-star Trustpilot profile, there is limited public negative review data available for Roma Finance. Common friction points for specialist development lenders as a category—and which may apply to Roma transactions depending on deal specifics—include:

• Drawdown delays — monitoring surveyor scheduling and certification can add time between build milestones and fund release; borrowers should factor this into their cash flow modelling
• Valuation outcomes — if the independent valuer assesses GDV lower than the borrower’s own appraisal, the resulting LTGDV constraint may reduce the available facility
• Documentation requirements — development finance has a higher documentation burden than bridging; borrowers who are under-prepared at application will experience delays

Roma Finance Support and Regulation

Customer Support

Roma runs a direct sales and BDM team that handles enquiries from both borrowers and brokers. The October 2025 announcement of two senior BDM appointments points to a deliberate expansion of distribution capability, with a stated target of doubling the loan book by 2026. The manual underwriting philosophy—case-by-case assessment rather than automated credit scoring—means borrowers with complex circumstances can expect a conversation rather than an instant decline, though response times on more complex cases will naturally be longer than on straightforward bridging.

For development finance transactions, Roma’s case management team coordinates the monitoring surveyor, legal teams, and drawdown process. If you are new to development finance, getting your head around how the surveyor and drawdown process actually works before the facility completes is the single most useful thing you can do to avoid surprises during the build.

Regulatory Status and Complaints

Development finance lending to limited companies, SPVs, and partnerships is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This is the industry-standard position across the specialist development lending market, not a specific characteristic of Roma’s offering. FCA regulation applies to consumer buy-to-let and some regulated bridging products (where the security is a property the borrower or a close family member occupies or intends to occupy). For professional borrowers using limited companies or SPVs—the typical structure for development finance—there is no FCA regulatory oversight of the lending relationship and no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service for complaints about the facility.

Borrowers should take independent legal advice before completing any development finance transaction, and should ensure they understand the full cost of the facility (including rolled-up interest and all fees) and the consequences of default or non-repayment before drawdown. Roma’s FRN for any regulated mortgage products it offers was not publicly confirmed at the time of this review; borrowers requiring regulated products should confirm Roma’s regulatory permissions directly.

Roma Finance vs Alternatives

Roma Finance vs Octopus Real Estate

Octopus Real Estate is the closest direct comparison for Roma at the smaller end of the institutional development lending space. Octopus lends from £100,000 to £50m on development finance, which means it covers schemes of comparable scale to Roma’s range but also extends well into mid-market institutional deals beyond Roma’s ceiling. Octopus has a stronger ESG and sustainability focus—relevant for developers targeting green credentials or institutional investors—and runs a heavily broker-centric model with a large national BDM team.

Against Roma, Octopus is a materially larger lender with deeper balance sheet capacity and a broader product range that extends to commercial investment, healthcare, and alternative residential sectors. For very small developers or borrowers whose profiles are complex, Roma’s manual underwriting may give you a more genuinely flexible assessment than Octopus’s more structured credit process. For straightforward residential development up to £3m–£5m, both lenders are credible options and both should be on a shortlist alongside a specialist broker to make sure pricing stays competitive.

Roma Finance vs Maslow Capital

Maslow Capital plays a fundamentally different game to Roma. Maslow’s development product has a minimum deal size of £20m and runs up to £750m; it is an institutional lender focused on professional mid-to-large developers delivering residential, PRS, PBSA, or mixed-use schemes of significant scale. Maslow does not publish rate floors and does not run a standard application process; every deal is individually priced and structured.

For the borrower considering Roma’s development finance, Maslow is not a realistic direct alternative. The comparison is relevant only as a market orientation point: Roma sits in the accessible, published-rate, smaller-ticket end of the development lending spectrum, while Maslow sits in the bespoke institutional end. Borrowers whose schemes grow beyond Roma’s product ceiling and into the £10m–£20m+ range will need to look at institutional lenders; Maslow is one option at that scale, alongside Octopus Real Estate and others.

Final Verdict: Is Roma Finance Development Finance Worth It?

Roma is a well-positioned specialist lender for residential and light commercial development finance in the sub-£5m segment. Its strongest credentials are the published rate floors, zero exit fees on bridging, the speed of the RomaFLOW channel for simpler transactions, and a manual underwriting philosophy that makes it genuinely accessible to borrowers with complex structures or non-standard profiles. These are not cosmetic differentiators; they reflect a deliberate positioning against more templated lenders and clearing banks that prioritise process efficiency over deal-by-deal assessment.

The limits are scale rather than quality. Roma is not the right lender for a large commercial scheme or a multi-site portfolio that needs institutional capital. The commercial development product (launched June 2025) caps at £2.5m, and the revolving credit facility (launched April 2025) caps LTV at 65%. Experienced developers scaling beyond these limits will need to look at Octopus Real Estate, THL, or institutional lenders further up the ticket size.

For the target borrower—an experienced residential or commercial developer, operating through a limited company or SPV, working on a scheme of £500,000 to £5m, who values published pricing and a relationship-based underwriting approach—Roma is a credible first-tier option. It should be shortlisted alongside two or three comparable specialist lenders, and using a specialist development finance broker to run a parallel process and negotiate terms is sensible regardless of which lender ends up leading the field.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum loan size for Roma Finance development finance?

Roma does not publish a stated minimum loan size for its development finance products. Its bridging range starts at £75,000, and the commercial development finance product (launched June 2025) has a stated minimum of £250,000. For ground-up residential development finance, the practical minimum is set by the economics of the scheme rather than a published floor; deals below around £150,000–£200,000 in total facility are unlikely to be viable given the fixed costs of monitoring surveyor, valuation, and dual legal representation. Enquire directly or through a specialist broker for precise guidance on your scheme.

Does Roma Finance lend to first-time developers?

Roma’s stated market includes property investors and tradespeople alongside professional developers, and its manual underwriting approach means it considers borrower profiles individually. However, ground-up development finance requires meaningful development experience. First-time developers are unlikely to qualify for Roma’s full development finance product; light or medium refurbishment finance may be accessible to borrowers with strong property investment experience who are undertaking their first conversion or refurbishment rather than a new-build scheme. A conversation with Roma or a specialist broker is the best way to assess whether your specific profile and proposed project are within scope.

Are Roma Finance’s development finance products regulated by the FCA?

No. Development finance lending to limited companies, SPVs, and partnerships is outside FCA regulatory scope—this is the industry-standard position across the specialist development lending market, not specific to Roma. FCA regulation of Roma’s products applies only where the security property is one that the borrower or a close family member occupies or intends to occupy (regulated bridging or regulated mortgage). Professional borrowers using limited companies or SPVs for development purposes should take independent legal advice before completing any facility, as the consumer credit protections and FOS access that apply to FCA-regulated products do not apply here.

How quickly can Roma Finance complete a development finance deal?

The RomaFLOW channel targets completions in seven to twenty-eight days for qualifying bridging transactions. Development finance takes longer than bridging because it involves a construction loan appraisal, independent site valuation, monitoring surveyor appointment, and a more involved legal process. Indicative terms can typically be issued quickly; full credit approval and completion on a development facility more typically takes four to eight weeks depending on the speed with which documentation is supplied and legal conditions are met. Using a specialist broker familiar with Roma’s process will generally reduce time to completion.

What is the maximum LTGDV on Roma Finance development finance?

Roma’s published maximum LTGDV on development finance products is 65%—meaning the loan facility cannot exceed 65% of the independently assessed gross development value of the completed scheme. GDV is determined by an independent RICS-qualified valuer appointed by Roma, not by the borrower’s own appraisal. The same 65% maximum applies to the commercial development finance product (£250,000–£2.5m) launched in June 2025. Loan-to-cost (LTC) is assessed alongside LTGDV; the interaction between both ratios determines the maximum facility available on any individual transaction.

Does Roma Finance charge exit fees on development finance?

Roma charges zero exit fees on its standard residential, semi-commercial, and commercial bridging products. The exit fee position on development finance facilities (as distinct from bridging) should be confirmed with Roma or a specialist broker at the indicative terms stage before committing to a full application. Exit fee structures vary between lenders and between product types within a single lender’s range, and this is one of the terms worth negotiating where leverage allows.