Q+A: Jadig's Adam Gringlas on lending in a tough market and the evolution of private credit

Jack and Adam Gringlas

Private lenders are facing a market where developers want higher leverage and faster decisions, while investors, wary of risk in today’s market, want safer returns.

Melbourne-based Jadig Finance is navigating both pressures while sticking to a simple formula: lend only against real estate, keep loans under $20m, and back borrowers the team knows and understands.

Founded in 2010 by the Gringlas family office, Jadig lends to small and mid-tier developers using capital from its own balance sheet and a network of high-net-worth investors. It has also launched a low-document lending arm – Simple Property Loans – for short term, sub-$3m deals.

Speaking with Green Street News, managing director Adam Gringlas said that in today’s market, demand is strongest for short-term, higher-leverage loans, with “most borrowers are looking for 75% LVR or higher.” He noted that land subdivision finance “has almost come to a standstill,” while smaller industrial projects remain active.

He also warned of a “race to the bottom” as capital floods into private credit, saying discipline around structuring and due diligence is starting to slip.

What is Jadig Finance, and how did it come about?

Jadig is a family office business – it’s actually an acronym of my parents’ names, Jack and Diane Gringlas. The family business dates back to 1977. We’re a private Melbourne family, part of the philanthropic Jewish community, and we originally operated in electric motors and engineering.

Over the last 15 years, we’ve moved heavily into property development and finance. Jadig Finance was established in 2010 and focuses on what we now call alternative private credit – primarily for property developers. I’m the managing director, we have a team of 10, and we lend sub-$20m, backed exclusively by real estate.

Our capital comes from two sources: our family balance sheet, and a tight network of high-net-worth, wholesale investors who are all known to us. Today we manage close to $200m and have been lending professionally for 15 years.

You were fairly early to the private credit game. Why did you get into it?

At the time, cash rates were starting to fall, and we were thinking about capital preservation and income – both for our family and for our network of retirees and baby boomers. We wanted to shift away from pure equity risk and towards something more defensive.

At first, it was just people like brokers and solicitors seeing us as a source of capital outside the banks. We kind of stumbled into it with first mortgages. Then word spread. And even though there’s more competition now, the quality of the deals and borrowers has lifted too.

How has the borrower landscape changed?

In the early days, borrowers might’ve been happy with the relationship, but they weren’t shouting about it. Now, developers see us as true project partners.

They want to work with us because of the speed, flexibility and sometimes even branding benefits. It’s a different dynamic.

What areas and asset types are you focused on now?

We’ve always had a Melbourne bias – that’s our backyard. But Covid showed us that geographical risk is real, so we’ve diversified. We’re building our presence in Sydney, and even more so in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. We’re aiming to get 20% of our book into those markets.

In terms of asset classes, we’re agnostic. Residential is still the core –townhouses, apartments, some subdivisions – but we also like industrial, especially small-format warehouses with mezzanines, the “man shed” product. It’s still performing well.

You also run Simple Property Loans. What’s the model there?

Simple Property Loans is something we created about three years ago. While many lenders were scaling up their average deal size, we went the other way and leaned into smaller, low-doc, non-construction loans – $500k to $3m, six to 24 months, backed by vanilla assets.

It’s designed to be simple, clear and broker-friendly. We wanted to give brokers a product where they can quickly know if the deal fits, and if it does, we move fast. It’s been really well received. We’re doing about three settlements a month now, and looking to grow that to five.

It’s also a good lead generator for Jadig Finance. Sometimes a client starts with a small bridging loan, and we end up funding a bigger project down the track.

What themes are coming through in your conversations with borrowers right now?

We’re still at the bottom of the property clock. Sale rates are sluggish, feasibility is tough, and while construction costs are stabilising, they’re still elevated.

So we’re seeing a lot of refinances, debt consolidation and equity-out loans – using unencumbered assets for cashflow. On the construction side, most borrowers are looking for 75% LVR or higher. We can work with that, but we need to be confident in the sponsor’s balance sheet and capability.

Industrial’s still going strong – particularly those smaller, strata-style warehouses. What’s gone quiet is land subdivision and land banking. That part of the market has almost come to a standstill.

Why has subdivision finance dropped off?

It’s a mix of things. There’s strong immigration and plenty of demand for housing, but it’s not translating to transactions.

State governments have been slow to release land and issue permits. And with high interest rates, the end buyers – people purchasing house and land packages – are struggling to get finance. So there’s demand, but not enough that can actually settle.

What are you hearing from investors right now?

It’s a good story for us. We’ve got a long track record now, and we’ve built products with consistent performance. Our capital continues to come through our network – what we call first- and second-degree relationships.

Most of our investors are looking for capital protection and income above cash rates. They know there’s risk in the market, so they’re favouring managers like us who operate at the lower end of the risk curve.

What keeps you up at night in this market?

The volume of capital flowing into private credit. It’s not a bad thing in itself, but when there’s too much money chasing deals, you start to see structuring shortcuts, poor decision-making and a race to the bottom on pricing.

We’ve always been cautious, but we want every participant in a deal to succeed – borrowers, investors, everyone. That requires proper due diligence and discipline, which can be hard to maintain in a hot market.

ASIC is taking a closer look at private credit. What’s your view?

I think it’s overdue. Up until now, it’s been largely unregulated, and some oversight is a good thing. There needs to be clearer guidance on conflicts of interest, transparency in wholesale investor reporting, and proper licensing – especially when it comes to distinguishing between business lending and consumer lending.

We’re strictly business lenders, but there are definitely operators trying to get around the consumer credit code, and that’s a risk for the whole sector if it’s not addressed.

Written by Layton Holley, Green Street News (2025). Available at: https://greenstreetnews.com/article/qa-jadigs-adam-gringlas-on-lending-in-a-tough-market-and-the-evolution-of-private-credit/ (Accessed: 14 August 2025)