Abstract: “Economic diversification is a key policy goal for the Government of South Africa. SMEs offer a feasible option towards the actualization of this goal. The expansion of construction SMEs in South Africa, however is constrained by lack of access to bank credit. This constrained access to credit is argued in the literature to be due to the credit rationing behavior of banks emanating from asymmetric information in credit markets. Constrained access to credit stifles the growth potential of this vibrant sector which is increasingly generating employment opportunities especially for young enterprises. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI, 2007). This study therefore investigated the factors that influence the credit rationing behavior of banks towards SMEs. A deductive methodological approach was used to examine this problem. The structured survey questionnaire was administered to 179 construction small and medium organizations to elicit relevant data about their credit rationing. Binary l”

Keywords: Credit , Rationing, Among,, Construction, Enterprises SMEs