Why Smart Developers Are Ditching Traditional Brokers
With capital markets more complex than ever, a new generation of developers is turning to specialist debt advisors for tailored funding strategies, long-term partnerships, and access to alternative capital others can’t reach.
2 min
Debt advisors go beyond brokering deals—they design capital strategies. Acting as portfolio stewards and trusted intermediaries, they align developer objectives with lender requirements to deliver tailored, long-term funding solutions.
Broader Access to Capital Markets
With relationships across a vast network of banks, non-bank financiers, private credit funds, and family offices, debt advisors provide access to alternative capital sources.
This reach enables the construction of customised capital stacks that may include mezzanine facilities, preferred equity, hybrid instruments, and other structured solutions that align with a project’s risk profile and lifecycle.
Especially in a constrained credit environment, this breadth of access often delivers superior pricing, greater leverage, and more flexibility compared to traditional broker-led channels.
Terms That Matter
While headline interest rates draw attention, debt advisors focus on the full picture. They negotiate on critical elements such as covenant headroom, redraw mechanics, amortisation profiles, prepayment terms, and security structures—preserving flexibility and mitigating future risk to improve project outcomes and capital efficiency.
Strategic Portfolio Management
In volatile markets, static debt can become a liability. Debt advisors continuously reassess and recalibrate facilities in response to rate changes, shifting market conditions, and project developments.
They coordinate refinancing, lead repricing discussions, and identify early exit opportunities to safeguard returns, ensuring that developers maintain balance sheet agility and reduce refinancing risk.
Master Interpreters Between Developers & Lenders
One of the most valuable functions a debt advisor performs is acting as an interpreter between developers and lenders. They understand both perspectives. By positioning proposals to align with lender frameworks, including committee metrics, serviceability models, and concentration thresholds, debt advisors use their reputational equity to influence lender decisions in ways that principals often cannot..
Proactive Risk Management
Debt advisors monitor macroeconomic trends, interest rate movements, and evolving credit standards to proactively flag risks within a developer’s portfolio. They identify refinancing inflection points, highlight covenant sensitivities, and build risk-mitigation strategies into the capital stack from day one, leveraging expertise in derivatives, hedging, and alternative security structures.
Regulatory & Market Intelligence
Navigating Australia’s dynamic regulatory landscape, including issues around non-bank lending, capital adequacy, and AML/CTF, debt advisors provide developers with real-time market insights. This intelligence helps avoid pitfalls and seize opportunities in an ever-shifting capital environment.
Efficiency Through Specialisation
Outsourcing the capital function to a specialist debt advisor streamlines operations and reduces internal bandwidth requirements. From managing data rooms and leading negotiations to coordinating legal documentation, debt advisors take on the operational burden, allowing developers to focus on delivery, construction, sales, and execution.
A Long‑Term Partnership Model
With a deep understanding of a developer’s portfolio, including facility history and long-term objectives, debt advisors are well-positioned to secure faster approvals, better terms, and smoother execution. Their established relationships with capital providers, coupled with portfolio insight, lead to more efficient and favourable outcomes across future projects. Over time, this strategic partnership becomes a competitive edge.
In Summary
In today’s selective capital markets, simple transactional brokering is no longer enough. Developers require strategic insight, risk foresight, and a partner who speaks both the lender’s and borrower’s language. Having a trusted advisor is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity.
Faris Dedic is the Founder and Managing Director of DIG Capital Advisory and COI Capital Management
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