Research brief
What 170 Banks Shared About Their Construction Lending Operations
Five findings from the ABA/Land Gorilla research study, and how construction lenders with faster draws and stronger oversight get there.
The American Bankers Association/Land Gorilla Construction Lending in 2026 Research Study asked 170 banks how they run construction lending. The survey covers the size of their teams, how draws move, how projects are monitored, and what would prompt them to grow the business. The findings describe a healthy, relationship-driven business run by small teams of experts. They also put numbers on the operational ceilings those teams work under. This piece walks through five of those findings and how the banks with the fastest draws and the clearest view of their portfolios are getting there. All survey figures are from the ABA/Land Gorilla Construction Lending in 2026 Research Study.
ABA members can download the full report with their ABA login.
Key findings from the ABA/Land Gorilla Construction Lending in 2026 Research Study
How many construction loans can one administrator manage?
61% of banks say one administrator can effectively manage fewer than 20 active loans. 89% say fewer than 40.
What it means
Lenders set this ceiling themselves, and it is not a talent problem. Every active loan is a live project with draws to review, inspections to reconcile, documents to collect, emails and phone calls to respond to, and budgets to monitor. At the industry’s own number, a three-person team tops out around 60 loans. More than half of banks expect their construction business to grow in 2026, making the gap between growth plans and team capacity a central operational question.
What is working at other banks
The capacity ceiling shifts when manual data entry moves off the administrator’s desk. At banks that have raised this limit, the draw request, the budget, the documents, and the inspection results are connected in one system. Each element is checked against the others rather than sitting in a spreadsheet, an inbox, and a shared drive. Some steps can initiate automatically, such as ordering the inspection when a draw request arrives, so less of the administrator’s day goes to gathering pieces. Every decision still requires their judgment. They simply manage more decisions in a day. One bank in the ABA report describes this plainly: a five-person team handles about $75 million in annual disbursements. By their own estimate, they have room to grow another 50% without changing staff.
How long do construction draws take to fund?
On smaller loans, draws commonly fund within a day or two. As projects grow, three to five business days becomes the norm, and waits of six or more days stop being rare.
What it means
Builders run on cash flow. Every day between a draw request and funds moving is a day a crew is waiting on money for finished work. The survey shows turnaround stretching as projects grow, exactly where the dollars and the relationships matter most. Banks in the ABA report that shortened their draw cycle describe builders bringing them repeat business because of it. In a market where builders steer borrowers toward lenders they trust, the draw process defines the customer experience. There is a revenue side too. Interest accrues on the funds that have been drawn, so every day a ready draw sits in review is a day the bank earns nothing on that money. As an illustration, a $150,000 draw at an 8% rate earns about $33 a day. If draws take three days longer than they need to, that is roughly $100 per draw. At 40 draws a month, it comes to nearly $50,000 a year in interest income the bank never earns.
What is working at other banks
The banks with fast draw cycles still review everything carefully. What they removed is the waiting. The borrower or builder submits the request and documents digitally. The inspection is ordered as soon as the request comes in, and its results are matched to the budget lines they describe. When the administrator reviews the draw, the request, the budget, and the evidence are already side by side. It is the same careful decision, made days sooner because nobody had to chase down the pieces first. One bank in the ABA report shares a clear outcome: draw turnaround went from six days down to two or three, and their builders noticed. Every day removed from the cycle is also a day of interest the bank earns sooner.
How much manual work goes into inspection reconciliation?
88% of banks put moderate or significant manual effort into reconciling inspection reports against budgets. Only 12% have automatic sync.
What it means
This represents a hidden cost in construction administration. Staff must read an inspection report, cross-reference photos and notes, key completion percentages into a budget, and resolve discrepancies before a draw can fund. It is skilled work spent on transcription, and it is where errors and delays enter the file.
What is working at other banks
The 12% of banks that have this solved do not have harder-working teams. They have inspection results that arrive as structured data instead of a PDF report someone has to re-key. Completion percentages are matched to the budget lines they belong to, photos are tied to the line items they document, and any mismatch between the report and the request is flagged before anything is cleared. At the most advanced banks, the system makes this comparison as part of the draw review. When a request asks for 50% of a line item and the inspection supports 30%, the system flags that line, and the administrator decides what gets approved. Matching numbers line by line is repetitive work that consumes an administrator’s day. With a system handling the baseline comparisons, that time goes to the work that needs their experience, such as reviewing flagged items, resolving issues with builders, and keeping more loans moving.
How often do missing documents delay construction draws?
62% of banks see draws delayed at least occasionally by missing or incorrect documents such as invoices and lien waivers.
What it means
Every missing lien waiver or invoice requires the administrator to request it again, delaying the draw until it arrives. Even then, the work continues. In states that require a statutory lien waiver form, the administrator has to confirm the waiver is on the correct form, features the right parties, and contains the required language. A waiver on the wrong form may not protect the bank. Each missing or incorrect document adds another round of costly friction, and across a busy portfolio, those cycles add up to days. The banks in the ABA report describe builders as highly skilled at their trade but often less focused on paperwork. The solution must make it easier to submit the right documents the first time, not just easier to track them down.
What is working at other banks
At the banks where documentation stops causing delays, submitting a complete record is the easiest path for everyone involved. The borrower and builder see exactly what each draw needs before they submit. Each submission is checked off against a tracked list, and administrators see what is outstanding across every loan without digging through email. At banks furthest along, the system does the busy work as part of the draw review. The waiver is confirmed to be on the right state’s form with the right parties. The signed draw form is verified word for word against the record so nothing in the language was altered, and a missing W-9 surfaces before it can hold up a payment. When the request spells out exactly which documents each draw needs and builders can submit them from a phone, the builder gets paid sooner and the bank gets a complete record. No draw moves forward with a gap in the record unless a person decides it should.
How do banks monitor their construction loan portfolios?
73% of banks rely on staff catching red flags case by case. Only 8% could produce a complete portfolio report instantly. Among banks not expecting growth, lower risk is the number one condition that would change their outlook.
What it means
Taken together, these findings reveal that banks want more confidence before they extend more construction credit. That confidence depends on maintaining a clear view of the entire portfolio, rather than just the individual loans someone happens to be reviewing. Today, most banks learn about a problem project when someone working the loan notices it. Catching it early depends on diligent manual oversight and some amount of good timing. A project with stalled draws might get caught at in days when a call to the borrower can still resolve it, or at 90 days after the problem has had three months to grow. Bank leadership encounters the same issue from a different angle. When management asks for a current picture of the construction portfolio, a team that has to assemble it by hand can spend days pulling it together.
What is working at other banks
At banks that feel confident about their portfolios, the oversight is automated. The system updates each loan as draws, inspections, and change orders are recorded, acting as a single budget of record. It flags a project when draws stall, when an inspection is overdue, or when spending is running ahead of completed work. A stalled project gets flagged without anyone having to go looking for it. Because that information is recorded as the work happens, the portfolio report management asks for can be run on demand. Anyone on the team can open a loan and see its draw history, inspections, and change orders, which is critical the week the primary administrator is out. The same automated review applies before the loan closes. The system reads the budget, the construction contract, and the appraisal, checks them against each other, and flags any discrepancies for the team to review. Those mismatches are often where problems on a construction loan begin. Banks with that kind of automated oversight are the ones comfortable growing their construction business.
Across all five
What the five findings have in common
The survey’s most encouraging finding is that banks are not trying to take people out of construction lending. Training is the top planned investment, and very few plan to cut staff. What lenders want is for their experts to accomplish more. Everything described above is standard practice at banks that run construction lending this way. None of it requires a bigger team, and all of it keeps judgment, oversight, and relationships exactly where they belong.
For a bank heading into a growth year, one more detail is worth noticing about these five findings. They are not five separate problems. The same draw runs through all of them. When the request, the documents, the inspection data, and the budget are connected in one system, the numbers improve together. Turnaround shortens because less time goes to gathering and matching, which also means interest starts accruing sooner on every draw. Inspection reconciliation stops being a separate step, the record stays complete, and the portfolio view is ready whenever management asks for it.
A review that could take an hour or more by hand now takes minutes, and every decision still belongs to the administrator.
Putting It into Practice
Land Gorilla’s construction loan management platform connects the draw request, documents, lien waivers, inspections, budget, communications, and portfolio reporting in one system, from due diligence before closing through the final draw. It handles the checking, matching, and tracking described in this piece so your team spends its time on decisions, approves draws sooner, and takes on more loans with the team it has.
For a closer look at banks working this way, watch how Horizon Bank moved off spreadsheets, how 1st Security Bank scaled to 31 branches while keeping its high-touch service, and how Luminate Bank grew its construction lending from 4 states to 46.
Next steps
Read the full survey results
The full report has the complete survey results, plus interviews with banks that changed how they run draws and what it meant for their teams and their builders. The report is available to ABA members, so you’ll need to sign in with your ABA login to download it.
Download the Construction Lending in 2026 Research Study from ABAStart with your biggest bottleneck
Every bank’s draw process slows down in a different place. Tell us where yours does, and we’ll start the demo there. You’ll see how Land Gorilla’s construction loan management software handles that step and how it connects to the rest of the draw.
Schedule a DemoFrequently asked questions
What is the Construction Lending in 2026 Research Study?
The American Bankers Association/Land Gorilla Construction Lending in 2026 Research Study surveyed 170 banks about how they run construction lending. The survey covers team size, how draws move, how projects are monitored, and what would prompt banks to grow the business. The full report is available to ABA members, who can download it with an ABA login.
How many construction loans can one administrator manage?
According to the survey, 61% of banks say one administrator can effectively manage fewer than 20 active construction loans, and 89% say fewer than 40. Banks that have raised that limit connect the draw request, budget, documents, and inspection results in one system, so less of the administrator’s day goes to gathering information.
How long does it take to fund a construction draw?
On smaller loans, draws commonly fund within a day or two. As projects grow, three to five business days becomes the norm, and waits of six or more days are not rare. Banks with faster draw cycles still review every draw carefully. They save time by ordering the inspection as soon as the request arrives and having results matched to the budget before the administrator begins.
What causes construction draw delays?
The survey points to two common causes. 62% of banks see draws delayed at least occasionally by missing or incorrect documents such as invoices and lien waivers. 88% put moderate or significant manual effort into reconciling inspection reports against budgets.
How can banks speed up construction draws without adding staff?
Connect the draw request, documents, inspection results, and budget in one system so each piece is checked against the others. When the inspection is ordered as soon as a request arrives and builders can see exactly which documents each draw needs, the administrator starts the review with everything in hand. They make the same decision, days sooner.
Where can I download the full report?
The report is hosted by ABA and available to ABA members. You’ll need to sign in with your ABA login to download it.