The Question
Developers sometimes treat "approvals pending" as a single status, when in practice a project can be anywhere from having secured every major clearance except a final formality, to having barely started the approval process at all. A lender's willingness to fund, and what it will fund, depends entirely on where the project genuinely sits on that spectrum.
What Lenders Actually Assess
- What's already secured versus what remains — a project missing one minor clearance is a materially different risk from one missing multiple major approvals.
- Dependencies between remaining approvals — some approvals can only be pursued once others are in hand, which affects realistic timeline.
- Track record on approval timelines — a developer's history of navigating this specific approval process credibly shapes how a lender views the remaining timeline.
- What the funding is actually for — approval-stage costs themselves are fundable through dedicated approval funding; construction finance typically waits until approvals are substantially complete.
What Actually Determines Fundability
- How close the project genuinely is to having all approvals in hand, not the developer's optimistic estimate.
- Whether the funding need is for the approvals themselves — the specific case approval funding is built for — or for construction that assumes approvals are already done.
- The developer's track record navigating this specific type of approval process.
- Which lender category realistically engages at this stage — typically NBFCs and private credit rather than banks.
Questions Worth Asking
Exactly which approvals remain, and what does each realistically depend on?
Is the funding need for the approvals themselves, or for construction that assumes they're already done?
What's our track record navigating this specific approval process on past projects?
Are we approaching lenders who genuinely engage with pre-approval-complete projects?
An honest map of what's actually outstanding, and matching the funding need to that specific stage, is what makes an approvals-pending situation fundable — this is exactly the ground approval funding and FSI premium funding are built to cover.
Key Takeaways
- "Approvals pending" covers a wide range of actual project positions, and lender willingness varies accordingly.
- Approval-stage costs themselves are fundable; construction finance typically waits for approvals to be substantially complete.
- Dependencies between remaining approvals affect realistic timeline more than the count of approvals outstanding.
- NBFCs and private credit, not banks, are the typical lender category at this stage.
Closing Perspective
The more useful framing isn't "can I get funding with approvals pending" as a yes-or-no question, but an honest map of exactly what remains, what depends on what, and whether the funding need matches this specific stage rather than assuming approvals are further along than they are.