Speed is a product in Australian property finance and it has a price. A major bank can take 6 to 12 weeks to approve a development facility. A private or caveat lender can settle in 5 to 10 business days. The difference between those two timelines is sometimes the difference between a deal existing and a deal dying, which is why an entire lender category has built its business model around it.
This article explains how speed is priced across the lender categories, when paying for it is rational and when it quietly becomes the most expensive habit in a developer's business. All figures are indicative category ranges as at June 2026, not offers or quotes. Every lender prices to its own assessment.
Why Speed Costs Money
A lender that settles in days has stripped out most of what makes a bank slow: committee approval cycles, full financial verification, pre-sales analysis and long valuation queues. What remains is a security-first assessment. The fast lender cares about the value of the asset, the loan-to-value ratio and the exit, meaning how and when the loan will be repaid.
Removing process removes protection, so the lender prices for the protection it gave up. Fast money also tends to be short money. Private and caveat facilities typically run 1 to 12 months, because the lender's model is rapid deployment and rapid repayment, not patient capital.
How Private and Caveat Lenders Price Speed
Private and caveat lenders are the fastest category in the market. A caveat loan is secured by a caveat lodged over the title rather than a registered mortgage, which is part of what makes it quick to settle. Pricing in this category has 3 components, each worth understanding separately.
- The rate. Quoted monthly rather than annually, indicatively 1% to 2% per month as at June 2026. Annualised that is roughly 12% to 24%, before fees.
- Establishment and legal fees. Indicatively 1% to 3% of the loan amount, payable on settlement. On a short loan these fees can rival the interest as the largest cost component.
- Capitalised interest. Many facilities deduct the full term's interest from the advance up front or capitalise it against the security. Nothing is serviced monthly, which suits a borrower with no income from the asset, but it means the effective loan-to-value is higher than the headline figure.
The combination matters more than any single number. A 3-month caveat loan at 1.5% per month with a 2% establishment fee costs roughly 6.5% of the loan amount for a quarter of a year's use of the money. As an annualised cost that is materially above any construction facility in the market.
The Indicative Pricing and Speed Order
The market trades speed against price in a consistent order. Figures below are indicative category ranges as at June 2026 and are illustrative of how each category prices, not quotes.
| Lender Category | Indicative Timeline | Indicative Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Major bank | 6 to 12 weeks | Roughly 6% to 8% p.a. |
| Non-bank development specialist | 2 to 6 weeks | Roughly 9% to 12% p.a. |
| Private and caveat lender | 5 to 10 business days | Roughly 1% to 2% per month plus 1% to 3% in fees |
Each step down the timeline roughly doubles the cost of the money. That is not a market failure. It is the price of certainty on a clock.
When Paying for Speed Is Rational
Speed is worth paying for when the cost of missing the deadline exceeds the cost of the money. Two composite scenarios show the shape.
Rescuing a settlement. A developer has exchanged on a site with settlement 3 weeks out. The intended facility falls over at the eleventh hour, the deposit at risk is $400k and the contract has no extension right. A $4M caveat facility costing roughly $200k over 3 months is expensive money, but it is half the cost of the lost deposit before counting the lost project. In this composite the fast facility is the cheapest available outcome, provided the refinance exit is real.
A time-boxed opportunity. An off-market parcel is offered at a genuine discount on a 21-day settlement, because the vendor's own deadline is the reason for the price. No bank moves at that speed on raw land. If the discount exceeds the cost of short-term funding with a margin to spare, the speed premium is what buys access to the discount. The deal's arithmetic carries the cost; the developer's own advisers are the right people to test it.
The common thread is a defined exit. In both composites the expensive facility is a bridge to a cheaper one: a refinance into a construction facility, a sale or a documented funding event. Fast money with a clear exit is a tool.
When It Becomes an Expensive Habit
The same product without a defined exit behaves very differently. Three patterns show up repeatedly in the market.
The rolling bridge. A short-term facility is extended once, then again, because the exit was hoped for rather than planned. Extension fees stack on establishment fees and a 3-month loan quietly becomes a year of money at roughly double the cost of a non-bank facility that proper lead time would have secured.
Speed as a substitute for preparation. Some borrowers reach for fast money because their information is never ready in time for a slower, cheaper lender: financials unprepared, feasibility undocumented, pre-sales evidence loose. In that pattern the speed premium is not buying speed. It is paying, repeatedly, for the absence of preparation.
Capitalised interest eroding equity. Where interest capitalises against the security, the debt grows every month the exit slips. A facility that started at 65% loan-to-value can drift toward the lender's ceiling. A borrower who arrives at the planned refinance with less equity than the new lender requires has converted a timing problem into a structural one.
The structural point: the fast category is built for short, defined gaps. Used as standing working capital, it is among the most expensive money available to an Australian property business.
What the Fast Categories Look For
Private and caveat lenders assess differently from construction lenders, which is precisely why they are fast. The recurring criteria are simple.
- Security value and loan-to-value, typically conservative, indicatively 50% to 70% against the asset.
- The exit, evidenced rather than asserted: a refinance approval in progress, a contract of sale, a documented liquidity event.
- Clean title and a borrower structure that can grant security quickly.
Notably absent are the things that slow a bank down: full income verification, pre-sales registers and committee cycles. The lender is underwriting the asset and the exit, not the borrower's cash flow.
FAQ
How fast can property finance actually settle in Australia?
Private and caveat lenders routinely settle in 5 to 10 business days and some advertise faster for simple, metro, low loan-to-value deals. Non-bank specialists typically take 2 to 6 weeks; major banks 6 to 12 weeks. Timelines are indicative as at June 2026 and depend on valuation access, title and the borrower's documentation.
Why are caveat loans quoted in monthly rates?
Because the terms are short, usually 1 to 12 months. A monthly rate of 1% to 2% (indicative) reads small against an annual rate but annualises to roughly 12% to 24% before establishment fees, which is why comparing the total cost of the facility over its actual term matters more than the headline rate.
Is fast finance only for borrowers a bank has rejected?
No. A large share of the category's volume is deal-driven rather than distress-driven: short-settlement acquisitions, deposit rescues, bridging between a sale and a purchase and releasing equity ahead of a slower refinance. The category exists because some deadlines are real and banks do not move at deadline speed.
What is the single biggest driver of cost in a fast facility?
Term. Establishment fees are fixed regardless of how long the loan runs, so a facility repaid in 6 weeks costs far less in percentage terms than the same facility extended for a year. The realism of the exit, not the rate, is what separates a cheap fast loan from an expensive one.
See What the Speed Premium Looks Like for a Project Like Yours
LenderBridge maps Australian development and property lenders at criteria level, including settlement speed by category. The free matching tool at lenderbridge.com.au/lender-match takes a project's shape in about 2 minutes and shows which lender types could fund a project like this, from the fastest categories to the cheapest.
General information only, not credit assistance or financial product advice. LenderBridge connects borrowers and lenders; it does not advise or recommend. Verify figures with a lender.