This type of development finance can be used to finance both the purchase and construction of land. For loans under 70% of the gross development value, the highest loan-to-value development finance plans will finance 70% of the land costs and 100% of the build costs. However, specialised facilities offer 70% of the land cost and 100% of the building cost. Due to this, they usually charge higher interest rates, set-up fees, and exit fees, as well as stricter underwriting requirements. To obtain the most favourable deals it is advisable to restrict development finance facilities to 60% of the land cost and 100% of the build cost.

The majority of development finance lenders typically require developers to possess relevant experience and demonstrate a track record of successfully completing similar projects in the past. Nevertheless, it remains feasible to secure ground-up development finance even if the developer is relatively new to the field or has primarily worked on smaller-scale projects previously. In such scenarios, the lender may seek assurance that the clients have access to a capable team with the relevant expertise, and the proposed project may need to be modest in scale but built on strong fundamentals.