Sales Period Finance in 2026: Sell Finished Units at Full Value
You have finished the build. The scaffold is down, the units are dressed, and the site looks the way it did in the brochure. The problem is that the clock on your development loan does not care how good the scheme looks. That loan was priced for build risk that no longer exists, and it has a redemption date that is coming whether or not the last flat has sold. This is exactly where sales period finance earns its place, and it is the question we get asked about most in the weeks after practical completion.
Sales period finance is a bridging facility taken once a residential scheme reaches practical completion. It is arranged to repay the development loan and to fund the period during which the finished units are marketed and sold. In plain terms, it swaps construction-priced debt for a cheaper bridge once the risky part of the job, the building, is behind you. That swap matters, because it takes the pressure off the calendar and lets you sell units at the price they are actually worth.
This article explains what sales period finance is, why a finished scheme should never be discounted just to hit a development loan deadline, how the facility repays the development loan and funds the marketing runway, and which lender camps tend to fund it. We are an arranger and introducer, not a lender, and we are not FCA authorised because this is unregulated commercial lending. Everything below is indicative market commentary for UK property in 2026, and the figures are for illustration rather than a quote.
What sales period finance actually is
Sales period finance, sometimes called a sales period loan or marketing period finance, is a first charge bridge that sits over a completed residential scheme while you sell it. It replaces the development facility that funded the build. The lender is no longer taking construction risk, because there is nothing left to construct. What they are lending against is a finished, valued asset with a clear sales plan behind it. Because the risk profile has changed, the pricing changes too. This is a sales period against the site, not a fresh loan against a building site.
The facility is sized on gross development value, the total the finished units are expected to fetch. Indicatively that runs up to 70 to 75 percent of GDV, which for most schemes comfortably clears the outstanding development loan and leaves a working margin. It is secured by a first legal charge over the scheme. The term is set to match the sales runway, indicatively 12 to 18 months, which is the realistic window to market a completed development, take reservations, and see legal completions through to money in the bank.
Why a finished scheme should not be discounted to a deadline
Here is the trap we see developers fall into. The development loan matures. There is still stock to shift. The lender wants their money back, and the developer starts thinking about a bulk sale or a round of price cuts to clear the units fast. Every one of those discounts is real money leaving the scheme, and it is leaving at the very end, after all the cost and effort of building has already been spent.
A price cut of even a few percent across a run of units can wipe out a meaningful slice of the profit that the whole project was built to earn. Selling into a deadline is selling from a weak position, and buyers and their agents can smell it. Sales period finance removes the deadline as the driver. Instead of pricing to a redemption date, you price to the market. That is the whole point of the facility: it buys time, and time is what lets you hold your asking prices and sell each unit for what it is genuinely worth.
How it repays the development loan and funds the runway
The mechanics are straightforward. On completion, the sales period facility draws down and the first thing it does is repay the development loan in full. From that moment the construction-priced debt is gone and you are running on the cheaper bridge. The headroom between the development loan balance and the facility amount then funds the marketing period itself, which covers agency fees, show unit costs, service charge shortfalls on unsold stock, and the interest bill while sales work through.
On pricing, sales period finance sits below development finance and above a term loan. That makes sense given where it sits on the risk curve: cheaper than funding an active build, dearer than a fully let, income-producing asset on long-term debt. Monthly interest is charged, and it is usually either rolled up into the facility or retained from the loan at the outset, so you are not writing an interest cheque every month while you are focused on selling. Base rate has held at 3.75 percent since the December 2025 cut, which has kept bridge pricing fairly steady through the first half of 2026.
How part-payments from sales bring the cost down
One of the features that makes this facility work so well is that it shrinks as you sell. As each unit completes, an agreed part of the sale proceeds is used to make a part-payment against the loan. The lender releases their charge over that unit, the buyer gets clean title, and your outstanding balance falls.
Because the balance falls, so does the interest you are paying, since interest is charged on what is drawn. The cost of the facility declines in step with the risk. Early in the sales period you owe the most and the lender is most exposed. By the time you are down to the final unit or two, the loan is a fraction of where it started and so is the monthly cost. This is a very different shape from a flat loan that costs the same on day one and day three hundred. It rewards steady sales and it means a developer is never paying to finance stock that has already been sold.
Sales period finance buys a developer the time to sell finished units at full value, instead of discounting them to clear a maturing development loan.
Which lender camps fund it
Sales period finance is funded by the same broad camps that support the wider bridging market, and the right one depends on the scheme, the location, and how far through the sales run you already are. Specialist bridging lenders are the natural home for it, comfortable with first charge lending against completed residential stock and used to the part-payment mechanics as units sell. Challenger banks with a property book will look at cleaner, larger schemes in strong locations, often at keener pricing where the profile suits them. Debt funds and private lenders come into their own on bigger loan sizes, on more unusual stock, or where speed and certainty matter more than the last basis point. We keep live relationships across all of these camps, and we never name a lender until we have matched the scheme to the ones most likely to say yes on sensible terms.
How we approach sales period funding
We start with the numbers that actually decide the case: the GDV, the current sales evidence, the development loan balance to be cleared, and the realistic runway to sell out. From there we shape a request that a lender can price quickly, and we take it to the camps whose appetite fits the scheme rather than papering every desk in the market. Because we arrange rather than lend, our job is to get you the structure and the terms that keep the most profit in the project. If a chunk of stock is likely to sit longer than the sales period allows, we will flag a move to residual stock finance early, so the tail of the scheme has a plan before it becomes a problem.
FAQ
Are you a lender? No. We are an arranger and introducer. We are not FCA authorised, and this is unregulated commercial lending. We match your scheme to lenders and help structure the facility, but the money comes from the lender, not from us.
How much can I borrow against my scheme? Sales period finance is sized on gross development value, indicatively up to 70 to 75 percent of GDV. For most completed schemes that clears the development loan and leaves headroom to fund the marketing period. The exact figure depends on the units, the location, and the sales evidence.
What happens if the units have not all sold when the term ends? That is a normal situation, not a crisis. Any residual stock can move onto a residual stock facility, which finances the units that are still selling past the end of the sales period. We plan for this from the start so the tail of the scheme is never left without funding.
How is the interest paid? Monthly interest is either rolled up into the loan or retained from the facility at the outset, so you are not making monthly payments during the sales run. As units sell and part-payments reduce the balance, the interest cost falls with it.
Talk to us
If your scheme is at or near practical completion and the development loan clock is ticking, the worst thing you can do is start discounting to beat it. There is a better move. You can talk to a development exit specialist about a bridge that clears the development loan and gives you the runway to sell at full value. Have a look at sales period finance and get in touch with the team at DevExit to talk your numbers through.
All figures in this article are indicative, for illustration only, and not an offer of finance or a quote; terms depend on the scheme, the lender, and your circumstances. This article was written by Matt Lenzie.