Loan-To-Cost Ratio - LTC

A ratio used in commercial real estate construction to compare the amount of the loan used to finance a project to the cost to build the project. If the project cost $1 million to complete and the borrower was asking for $800,000, the loan-to-cost (LTC) ratio would be 80%. The costs included in the $1 million cost figure would be land, construction materials, construction labor, professional fees, permits and so on.

The LTC ratio helps commercial real estate lenders assess the risk of making a construction loan. The higher the LTC ratio, the higher the risk. A similar, commonly used metric, the loan-to-value ratio, compares the amount of the loan to the fair-market value of the project.