Silverbrooke, Whitby

New Zealand company Connemara, owned and operated by Tim Campbell, has developed a close relationship with ASAP Finance. From its base in Wellington, Connemara provides fully integrated property solutions to clients across the globe. Campbell says Connemara’s strength lies in its commitment to building long term relationships with like-minded organisations and leveraging its deep industry knowledge to deliver the best outcomes.

Recently Campbell and his team have been working closely with ASAP Finance to deliver a 225 Lot subdivision in Whitby, Porirua.

“Everyone’s situation is unique,” says Campbell, who worked overseas for many years, and has a long association with the construction industry. “We’re a new company with a new product so we didn’t have the track record that an established corporate would have,”.

“Yet we had a project of significant scale, which needs a significant amount of capital. Despite substantial capability within our project team it was challenging raising significant tranches of funding in the early stages of the project”.

Campbell notes that the development site was originally ex-forestry land. “When we met prospective lenders on site it was hard for them to look beyond the perceived risk of steep contours and pine trees, whereas ASAP Finance quickly quantified that development risk and moved beyond it, because they have that experience,” says Campbell.

“And with their ability to visualise the end outcome, they were able to get their heads rapidly around the project and the quality of our project team.” That approach has been consistent in Connemara’s dealings with ASAP Finance.

“They came back to us in terms of that initial deal so fast, and throughout the process they’ve been really efficient and timely in how they respond to the evolving requirements of our project” says Campbell.

He notes that, while some banks will understand what Connemara is trying to do, the development company didn’t fit inside the traditional criteria. “ASAP Finance was able to satisfy itself that our project team could deliver, which was especially important due to the complexity of the project.”

“Being able to look past the noise and identify critical issues thereby adding value to the development process is something the team at ASAP are adept at, and it’s not something you typically expect from a project lender. This is a significant point of difference of the ASAP team.”

ASAP was able to provide a loan facility using the existing presales and this enabled the client to commence work immediately. Additionally, stage one of the development was funded without a QS with drawdowns being made based on engineer reports only.  Progress payments were made on the same day they were requested, ensuring all contractors were paid on time, which generates goodwill with contractors and prevents potential delays.

Campbell says that the company’s relationship with ASAP is based on transparency. “We believe that successful projects are nearly always an outcome of like-minded people working together to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.”