Finance for construction and contracting
Building work is paid for long after it is done. Funding the gap between paying your people and being paid by your client is the central problem of the sector.
Request a callback- Commonly funded
- Plant, vehicles, mobilisation
- Typical facilities
- Asset and invoice finance
- Lender focus
- Who your contracts are with
This page describes what businesses in this sector typically fund and what lenders generally look for. It is not a recommendation, and what is available to you depends on your own circumstances.
About construction
Construction runs on other people's payment terms. Wages, plant hire and materials all land weeks before an application for payment is certified, and retentions can hold a slice of the value back for a year or more after practical completion. A profitable contractor can be short of cash for entirely ordinary reasons.
Lenders know this, and the good ones underwrite around it rather than being alarmed by it. What they look at is the quality of your contract base: main contractors who pay reliably, frameworks, and a spread of work rather than a single client who could take the whole business down with them.
What construction businesses fund
- Excavators, dumpers, telehandlers and site equipment, usually on hire purchase.
- Tippers, flatbeds, welfare units and site vans.
- Contract mobilisation — the labour and materials needed before the first valuation.
- Invoice finance against certified applications, releasing cash on submission rather than on payment.
- Refinance of owned plant to raise working capital for a larger job.
What strengthens a construction case
- A contract book spread across several clients rather than concentrated in one.
- Evidence that applications are being certified and paid roughly on time.
- Clear separation between contracting income and any development activity.
- An accurate picture of retentions held, since lenders will discount them.
- Up-to-date management accounts — annual figures alone rarely tell the story in this sector.
Frequently asked
Can I fund work for a single large main contractor?
Yes, though concentration will be priced in. Invoice finance in particular becomes more cautious when one debtor represents most of the ledger, because the funder's risk sits with that customer's payment behaviour rather than yours.
Does construction get declined more often?
By generalist lenders, sometimes. Insolvency rates in the sector are high and some funders simply avoid it. Specialists who understand applications, retentions and payment cycles take a very different view, which is why the choice of lender matters so much here.
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We will tell you which funders lend into your industry, and roughly what they are likely to say.
