Quantity surveyor (QS)
What does a quantity surveyor do for a development lender?
ONE OF 80 TERMS · FREE · NO SIGNUP
BY MICHAEL SHANG · SIXTEEN YEARS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING · UPDATED
// THE SHORT ANSWER
A quantity surveyor is the independent cost professional a development lender relies on. Before the loan is approved they check that the budget will build the building; before each drawdown they inspect the site, certify the work claimed and its value, and confirm the cost still to complete. The lender funds against the certificate, not the builder's claim, and a certificate showing more cost to complete than money available stops the drawdown until the gap is filled.
BASIS Practitioner judgment from sixteen years in commercial banking, set out in How Bankers Think (Highbank Press, 2026). Every borrower on this site is a composite constructed for teaching, not a client. The market is mid-market commercial lending as practised in New Zealand and Australia; where a convention differs elsewhere, the page says so.
// WORKED IN
// NEXT TO IT
- 5 Cs of credit
- Cash conversion cycle
- Working capital facility
- Quality of earnings
- Debtor days
- Borrowing base
- Covenant headroom
- Second way out
- Personal guarantee release
- Customer concentration
- Multi-currency facility
- Bankability
- Commitment fee
- Clean-down
- Self-liquidating
- Balloon payment
- Amortisation
- Debt service cover ratio (DSCR)
- Interest cover ratio
- Debt to EBITDA (leverage)
- Dilution (receivables)
- Advance rate
- Hardcore (overdraft)
- Loan to cost (LTC)
- Presales
- Standstill agreement
- Break cost
- Expected loss
- Dividend payout ratio
- Debt per kgMS
- Fixed charge cover ratio (FCCR)
- Global cash flow
- Interest reserve
- General security agreement (GSA)
- Negative pledge
- Condition precedent (CP)
- Event of default
- Covenant waiver
- Reservation of rights
- Watch list
- Risk grade
- Loan loss provision
- Going concern
- Management accounts
- Term-out
- Subordination
- Intercreditor agreement
- Club facility
- Unsecured lending
- Loan to value ratio (LVR)
- Forced-sale value
- Related-party transactions
- Capitalised costs
- Retention (construction)
- Peak debt
- Cash sweep
- Finance lease
- Adjusted EBITDA
- Interest rate swap
- Forward exchange contract
- Maturity transformation
- Risk-weighted assets
- Net interest margin
- Credit cycle
- Yield curve
- Transaction exposure
- Information barrier
- Conflict of interest
- Material non-public information
- Tipping off
- Suitability
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