Finance Manager

Role:Finance Manager - Residential Development

Location: Delhi / Mumbai

Job Profile:

A core finance role within Lodha UK, embedded across the project lifecycle from land acquisition through to practical completion and investor distribution. Reporting to the Finance Director, the post holder will act as the financial backbone for Lodha UKs development projects, combining rigorous cost control, financial modelling, and cross functional governance.

The role requires a commercially minded accountant with deep real estate experience who can operate with a high degree of autonomy, communicate credibly both with internal and external stakeholders, deal with complicated tax analysis and Group compliance all the while maintaining a hands on and adaptable approach.

Project P&L Ownership

• Financial modelling of development schemes and potential sites over the business plan horizon, including cash position, interest effects, profit delivery and staff resourcing.
• Management of project P&L, including sales analysis, ROCE and profit recognition approach.
• Maintaining and updating profit/appraisal systems in line with project changes including build programme amends, coordinating with development, technical and sales teams to establish realistic costs, timeframes and sales values.

Project Cost Control, Budgeting & Reporting

• Management of total budget across each site, presenting monthly cost variances vs budget to senior management or joint venture Board and
• Monitoring of consultant fee budgets, contractor payments and sales & marketing expenditure proactively identifying areas requiring budget revisions while providing a down view to identify any omitted or un provisioned expenditure elements.
• Management of sales cash receipts across projects, working closely with solicitors and sales teams as reservations move to exchange and completion.
• Engagement with development finance providers to arrange monthly draw downs, payment runs or repayment from sales cash flows. Identify future or potential funding shortfalls with sufficient notice that equity or investor cash flows can be arranged.
• Monitor and enforce financial authority delegation to ensure material spends have been appropriately reviewed and approved prior to payment.

Support Project Inceptions

• Design and maintenance of cost reconciliation and reporting templates for new sites.
• Engage with strategic & planning teams for thorough review of financials associated with new land acquisitions.
• Scenario modelling and analysis for feedback to land opportunities.
• Review new or proposed financing facilities and any practical impact on the proposed development.

Financial Reporting & Management Accounts

• Review of monthly management accounts (and supporting SAP data) produced by shared service centre.
• Feedback of expenditure understandings into correct classification of inventory (work in progress) vs costs taken through P&L and ultimately how those accounting differences impact profit taking later in the project life cycle.
• Analysis of provisions such that they remain current including any indexation, overages or penalties.
• Support annual statutory accounts production and audit with required financial summaries, papers and commercial rationales.
• Analysis of pre development spend to support capitalisation decisions, write offs and write backs.

Tax, Compliance & Governance

• Tax analysis on land and property transactions, including the option to tax, VAT status of transactions and SDLT implications.
• Ensure corporate structuring decisions arising out of project or financing requirements consider taxation impacts across the whole lifecycle of the project.
• Collation and review of Anti Money Laundering documentation on purchasers and counterparties, supporting compliance in the sales process.
• Financial due diligence on key consultants and contractor prior to appointment, and management of procedural requirements (e.g. appointment documents) to limit company liability exposure.

Process Improvement

• Proactively pursue continues feedback and learnings to achieve process improvement both for financial reporting and risk management.
• Contribute to SAP / ERP evolution.

Residual Revenue Stream Management

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• Conduct contracting & lease negotiations for commercial properties within our development portfolio.
• Engage with commercial agents for rental assessments, capital valuations and portfolio sale processes.
• Support with the establishment of residential service charge operations, dictated by development site characteristics, to help deliver a seamless and premium experience for residents while simultaneously feeding back service charge void expectations into development financials.

Essential:

• ACA, ACCA or equivalent qualification.
• 6 plus years of relevant work experience.
• Strong management accounting and financial reporting background, ideally within residential development, including inventory/WIP accounting and multi entity reporting.
• Advanced Excel financial modelling skills.
• Experience of SAP or a comparable ERP system.
• Proven ability to present financial information to senior management and to produce Board quality written commentary.

Desirable Technical Skills & Experience:

• SDLT, VAT (Option to Tax), CIS, and UK GAAP/IFRS as applied in property development
• Development appraisal tools (Argus Developer or equivalent)
• Understanding of senior debt / mezzanine facility mechanics and IMS reporting
• Familiarity with AML obligations under MLR 2017 as they apply to the sales process.

Personal Attributes:

• Commercially minded, with the ability to translate financial analysis into clear recommendations for non finance stakeholders.
• Highly organised and able to manage multiple projects and reporting cycles concurrently.
• Strong attention to detail with a rigorous, process driven approach to cost control and compliance.
• Confident communicator, comfortable liaising with solicitors, consultants, lenders and sales teams.