Funding a site while a planning RFI is open.

Q: Can I get finance before the permit issues?

Sometimes. Bank credit policy generally wants a stamped permit first, while parts of the private and non-bank market will assess a site with a live application, securing against land value and an evidenced planning pathway. Whether that is open to you depends on the site, security, equity, exit and planning evidence, and is answered on a specific deal rather than in general.

Q: Does a referral authority objection kill the deal?

Not automatically. Many objections are raised because a determining authority has not been given enough to satisfy itself on one technical point, not because the proposal is unacceptable. Identify what it needs, obtain it from the right consultant and present it as one consolidated package. Some objections are fatal to a design, and your town planner should tell you which you face.

An RFI or referral-authority objection is a timing and evidence problem. How to sequence consultants, close items in parallel, and run the debt conversation against the planning timetable.

Planning RFIs & referral authorities

The clock stops on the application, never on the land.

A request for further information pauses a planning application. It does not pause rates, land tax, interest on the acquisition debt, an option expiry or a settlement date. That gap between a stopped statutory clock and a running cost clock is where site deals quietly get into trouble.

The usual instinct is to treat the RFI as a planning problem and leave finance until the permit issues. By then the borrower often negotiates from a weaker position: facility near expiry, holding costs into the contingency, and a credit story about pressure rather than a well-run project.

Siare works the other way around. An open RFI or referral objection is a timing and evidence problem that can be documented, scheduled and put in front of a credit team while it is still being resolved. Some lenders will not look at a site until the permit is stamped; parts of the market will consider a well-evidenced site with a live pathway. Which lenders, on what terms, and whether any proceed depends on the site, sponsor and exit — an assessment we do, not a promise we make.

The mechanics

What an open RFI actually means to a lender.

An RFI is a pause, not a verdict

In most Australian jurisdictions a responsible authority can request further information in an early window after lodgement, and the statutory assessment period does not run again until it is provided. An RFI is normal — not a refusal, and no signal that the application lacks merit. Confirm the process in your state with your planner.

Under-resourced councils create lead time

Regional and peri-urban shires often run small planning teams against high volumes. A vacancy, a leave period or a committee agenda cycle can add weeks that have nothing to do with your proposal — and a lender who does not know the council will assume the slower outcome.

Referral authorities stall more than merit does

Water corporations, road authorities, electricity distributors, catchment, heritage and environmental bodies sit outside the council's control. In several jurisdictions an objection from a determining referral authority can oblige a council to refuse, whatever the design's merits. Their queue is their own, and it frequently dictates the timetable.

Credit is pricing duration and evidence

A credit team is not assessing planning merit. They are pricing how long the open items may take, what happens to their security if the answer is unfavourable, and whether the sponsor is managing the process or waiting on it. Evidence moves all three.

Sequencing

Close the items in parallel, not in series.

Most RFI timelines blow out for one reason: items are worked one at a time, each starting after the last is signed off. Run as a schedule, the same list can often close in far less elapsed time.

Turn the letter into a schedule

Break the RFI into numbered items, each with an owner, a cost and a delivery date. An RFI letter is a list of problems; a schedule is a project, and lenders, councils and consultants respond differently to the second document.

Identify the determining referral authorities first

Work out which authorities must be referred, which are advisory and which have flagged a concern; where an objection looks likely, make contact early and in writing. That queue is usually the longest lead item, so start it on day one.

Book long-lead consultants, then map real dependencies

Arborists, traffic and geotechnical engineers, surveyors, drainage consultants and utility abolishment programs each have their own queues, and some are seasonal. Commission everything independent in week one. Stormwater design may genuinely need the survey and tree protection zones first, but most items do not wait on each other, and separating real dependencies from assumed ones is the largest saving available.

Respond once, consolidated

Drip-feeding responses invites further rounds of questions and restarts internal reviews. One submission, with a covering letter mapping each item to the document answering it, gives the planner a single assessment to run — how our Shepparton referral objection was resolved.

Run the debt conversation against the planning timetable

The question is not "what can I borrow once the permit issues" but "what must the capital structure survive until then". Facility expiry, settlement or option dates, extension mechanics and holding cost coverage belong on the same schedule as the arborist report.

Evidence pack

What makes planning risk legible to credit.

Assemble this before the finance conversation, not during it. A lender who sees the whole picture is assessing a managed process; one receiving it piecemeal is assessing an unknown.

This page describes general process for business and investment-purpose property finance. It is not planning, legal, tax or accounting advice, and nothing here is an offer of credit or a representation that finance is available. Obtain your own planning, legal and tax advice.

The RFI letter in full. Unedited and dated; summaries invite the question of what was left out.

The response schedule. Owner, status and expected delivery for each item.

Referral authority correspondence in writing. Verbal comfort carries little weight in a credit paper.

Consultant engagements or quotes. Proof the work is commissioned and funded, not merely intended.

Your town planner's written view. Likely pathway, outcomes and risks, in their own words.

Zone, overlays and controls. Plus nearby precedent approvals.

Title, contract and critical dates. Settlement or option expiry, extension mechanics, deposit at risk.

Feasibility on a longer horizon. Holding costs modelled past the hoped-for approval.

The exit, evidenced. Sale, refinance into construction or a takeout.

Sponsor track record. Comparable approvals delivered, ideally with the same council.

Questions we get

What developers ask us first.

Can I get finance before the permit issues?

Sometimes. Bank credit policy will generally want an approved permit first. Parts of the private and non-bank market will assess a site with a live application, securing against land value and an evidenced pathway rather than the finished project. Whether that is open to you depends on the site, security, equity, exit and planning evidence — answered on a specific deal, not in general.

Does a referral authority objection kill the deal?

Not automatically. Many objections are raised because the authority has not been given enough to satisfy itself on one technical point, not because the proposal is unacceptable. Identify what it needs, obtain it from the right consultant, present it as one package. Some objections are genuinely fatal to a design; your planner should tell you which you face.

Should I wait for the permit before speaking to a broker?

Waiting removes options. The useful window is while there is still time to extend a settlement, restructure a facility or stage equity. A broker brought in the day the permit issues can only work with the position left them.

How long does an RFI take to resolve?

There is no reliable general answer, and any figure quoted as typical should be treated with suspicion. It turns on the number of items, consultant queues, referral authorities and council resourcing. As one published example, not a benchmark, our Yarragon RFI ran about 18 months to approval.

My settlement date lands before approval. What now?

Broadly: negotiate an extension, bridge the settlement while the application continues, restructure the equity, or bring in a partner. Each carries real cost and risk, and the right one depends on the deposit at risk, the contract terms and how firm the pathway looks. Contract variations are for your solicitor or conveyancer.

Track record

Planning timelines we have sequenced before.

Published case studies, included to show how the process was run. Each is one past transaction, not an indication of terms, timing or outcome on another deal.

Regional RFI run as a project

A Baw Baw Shire request for further information covering arborist, gas abolishment and drainage items, managed against a written schedule rather than item by item.

Read the Yarragon case study →

A referral authority objection, resolved

A Goulburn Valley Water referral objection on a residential growth zone site, answered in one consolidated evidence package rather than partial responses.

Read the Shepparton case study →

Funding ahead of the valuation

An $800,000 six-month bridge on an approved Moama NSW site, secured on an evidenced package assembled before the gross realisation valuation was instructed. One past deal, on its own facts.

Read the Moama case study →

More on how we structure development and site finance sits under development finance advisory, and every published transaction is on our track record.

Start with the letter

Send the RFI, not the permit.

If you have an open RFI, a referral authority objection or a settlement date closing in on an unapproved site, the useful conversation is now. Siare's principal has sat on every side of the table — bank credit assessor, private credit fund manager, developer and broker — and Siare is a La Trobe Financial Preferred Platinum Partner, with direct senior BDM and credit access when a file needs explaining rather than submitting.

Send the RFI letter, the title and your critical dates. We will tell you candidly what the options look like, where the evidence gaps are and where the risk sits — including when the answer is that you should not be borrowing against this site yet.

Talk to us about your site How we work with borrowers

Town planners, engineers and project managers. If you are running an RFI for a client whose funding position is the real constraint, we take referrals and work alongside the consultant team rather than around it. You keep the planning relationship; we handle the debt. See how we work with referral partners, or run the numbers with our development finance calculator.

How we work with referral partners