An explainer from Watson AM, Basel
Fifty-eight days is our average from first contact to funds released, and indicative terms follow within 72 hours of a complete file. Behind those two figures sits a calendar most borrowers never see: nine diligence steps, run in a fixed order, on every loan we arrange. Developers tend to ask about the timeline before anything else, because most arrive having lost months elsewhere; two of our twelve published case files had searched for financing for 18 months to 2 years before reaching us. So this piece opens the calendar. Here is what fills a property-loan funding timeline, where the fixed formalities sit, and why preparation, rather than urgency, is what shortens it.
Why lending calendars grew in the first place
A serious lender has real work to do before money moves, and European supervision has steadily formalised it. The EBA's guidelines on loan origination and monitoring (EBA/GL/2020/06, applicable since 30 June 2021) set out what institutions are expected to assess when they grant credit: the borrower's capacity to repay, the valuation of the collateral, and documented, governed processes around both. None of that list is optional for a bank, and little of it should be optional for anyone lending against property. The difference between lenders is rarely the checklist; it is how the checklist is run, and whether it was built before or after the deal arrived.
The nine steps, laid on the calendar
Our diligence pipeline is published in full on the approach page, and it is the same nine steps on every file. Laid against time, it clusters like this:
- First 72 hours
A complete file arrives and is read against the published deal box: EUR 1M to EUR 1bn, up to 80% loan-to-value, eleven European markets. Indicative terms follow within 72 hours.
- Assessment and legal work, steps 1 and 2
The initial project assessment tests fit and the business model; legal due diligence, run with Swiss and local law firms, vets the borrower and the structure.
- The list and the numbers, steps 3 and 4
The conditions precedent list is verified item by item, and the financial and collateral review reads the valuation before any ratio built on it is trusted.
- Security built and registered, steps 5 and 6
The security package is designed and verified, then notarised and entered in the land register, before disbursement rather than after.
- Clearance to close, steps 7 and 8
AML and KYC run against Swiss, European, and local standards; final approval and documentation follow, and funds are released.
Step nine, ongoing monitoring, starts where this calendar ends and runs for the life of the loan. Two stages on the list carry fixed formal time that no lender can compress away: the notarial and land-register work, which Swiss law requires for real-estate security (the 2026 Switzerland chapter of the ICLG Lending & Secured Finance guide sets out why a public deed and registration are the required route), and the cross-border compliance checks. The rest of the calendar is judgement work, and judgement is where preparation shows.
What moves a file off the average
An average of 58 days contains a wide spread, and the published book shows both ends of it. The fastest file, an urban bathing facility in Oslo, reached term sheet in under a day, because we knew from the first call which investors would want it. Half of the twelve published deals reached term sheet within two weeks. At the other end, a Geneva residential scheme took 1.5 months to term sheet because internal and communal issues had to be untangled first, and a Danish acquisition took four months because the ownership structure needed patient underwriting. Those slower files are the record working as intended: the calendar stretched because the work was real, and it was the file that funded, on the terms first written down.
What the spread teaches is that the conditions precedent list, agreed early, is what keeps a timeline honest. Terms set out at the start, with the outstanding items written down, do not need renegotiating at week seven; we covered the list itself in the CP-list explainer. A borrower's best lever is the same list read in reverse: a file that arrives with title, valuation, planning, and corporate documents assembled has already done part of the lender's calendar for it.
Speed as a product of structure
Every project we have qualified through that diligence has gone on to fund, across 2024, 2025 and 2026 to date, a record so far rather than a forward promise. The point of the timeline is that the two figures borrowers care about, the 72 hours and the 58 days, are outputs of the same structure: a framework that existed before the deal arrived, a security package registered before money moves, and an investor base known well enough to match a file quickly. Urgency without that structure just produces a fast no, or a slow one.
Where Watson AM fits
This one is our own calendar, so the connection needs no manufacturing. For a developer with a purchase deadline or a build schedule, the practical offer is a published deal box to self-qualify against, indicative terms within 72 hours of a complete file, and a funding timeline that averages 58 days because the diligence is prepared rather than improvised. For an investor, the same calendar reads as protection: nothing in it is skipped when a file is urgent. Investor and borrower material is available on request.
Common questions
How fast can a borrower get indicative terms?
At Watson AM, indicative terms follow within 72 hours of a complete file. The published deal box, EUR 1M to EUR 1bn at up to 80% loan-to-value across eleven European markets, lets a borrower or broker check the fit before submitting anything.
How long does it take from first contact to funding?
Watson AM's average time to funding is 58 days. The average carries a wide spread: across the twelve published case files, term sheets were issued anywhere from under one day to four months from first contact, and half of the twelve reached term sheet within two weeks.
Does moving quickly weaken the diligence?
The nine steps run on every file regardless of pace. Speed comes from preparation rather than omission: the diligence framework and the conditions precedent list exist before a deal arrives, and a known investor base means a fundable file can be matched quickly. The fastest published deal, an Oslo construction facility, reached term sheet in under a day through exactly that route.
Watson AM, Basel. This article is general market commentary for professional and qualified investors and for real-estate developers. It isn't investment, legal, or tax advice, or an offer of any financial product.
Sources
- European Banking Authority, Guidelines on loan origination and monitoring (EBA/GL/2020/06), final report 29 May 2020, applicable from 30 June 2021, eba.europa.eu, on what European lenders are expected to assess at origination.
- ICLG, Lending & Secured Finance Laws and Regulations 2026, Switzerland chapter (Bär & Karrer Ltd), 1 July 2026, iclg.com, on the notarial deed and land-register requirements for Swiss real-estate security.
- Watson AM, the published nine-step due diligence pipeline and deal box, watson.am/approach.
- Watson AM deal book (anonymised), term-sheet and funding timings across the twelve published case files, read July 2026.