Short-term lending
Bridging Finance for Property Purchases, Auctions and Refurbishments
Short-term secured lending that completes in days rather than months, with a clearly evidenced exit agreed before a penny is drawn.
The proposition
Speed, bought deliberately and repaid quickly
Bridging finance exists to solve timing. An auction purchase completes in twenty-eight days, a vendor will not wait for a term lender’s valuation queue, a building is unlettable and therefore unmortgageable until the works are done. In each case, conventional lending cannot move fast enough to secure the asset.
It is expensive relative to a term facility, and it should be. The right way to judge a bridge is against the cost of losing the opportunity, and against the total cost over the months it is actually outstanding — not against a mortgage rate it was never competing with.
The single thing that matters most is the exit. Every case we place has a documented route out — a refinance onto a commercial mortgage, a sale with an agent’s appraisal behind it, or a completion elsewhere. Without that, we will tell you not to do it.
Applications
When a bridge is the right instrument
Most of our bridging cases involve a property that will not currently pass a term lender’s criteria, or a deadline a term lender cannot meet. Both are solvable, provided the end position is clear.
Bridging is equally useful in practice transactions where the goodwill deal has a fixed completion date and the freehold element needs more time to underwrite.
- Auction purchases with a twenty-eight day completion
- Buying a surgery or clinic premises ahead of selling an existing one
- Refurbishing an unmortgageable building to make it lettable or lendable
- Converting retail or office space to clinical use before refinancing
- Meeting a practice acquisition deadline while term funding is finalised
- Releasing equity quickly to fund a time-limited opportunity
Client outcomes
What it buys you
The asset, not the queue
Cash-buyer status at auction and with motivated vendors, which frequently secures the property below the price a chain-dependent buyer would pay.
Value created before exit
Refurbishment funded in tranches lifts the valuation, so the refinance is against the improved figure rather than the purchase price.
No forced sale
A chain break bridge lets you complete on the new premises without discounting the old one to a fast buyer.
At a glance
Indicative terms
- Facility size
- £75,000 to £10m, secured by first or second charge on UK property.
- Loan to value
- Typically up to 75% of open market value; higher against a purchase at genuine undervalue.
- Term
- 3 to 24 months. Most cases redeem inside 9 months.
- Interest
- Charged monthly and usually rolled up or retained, so there is nothing to service during the term.
- Exit
- Refinance, sale or another completion. Evidence of the exit is required at application.
- Speed
- Five working days at the fastest with a clean title and a valuation in hand; two to three weeks is typical.
Related funding lines
Questions
Bridging Finance — frequently asked questions
Three ways. Rolled up, where interest accrues and is settled in full at redemption. Retained, where the lender holds the interest for the expected term from the gross advance. Or serviced monthly from income. Rolled up and retained are the most common in commercial cases because they leave the borrower with nothing to fund during the works.
A refinance with a lender that has already given an indication, a sale supported by an agent’s marketing appraisal, or a dated completion on another transaction. Underwriters will test it, and so will we. A bridge without a credible exit is the one situation in this market where saying no is the right advice.
Yes, and that is one of the strongest uses of the product. A building with no kitchen, no bathroom or an unsuitable planning use will fail term lending criteria outright. A refurbishment bridge funds the works in stages, and the property is refinanced onto a commercial mortgage once it meets the criteria.
Next step
Working to a deadline?
Tell us the property, the timescale and the exit. If a bridge is the right answer we will move immediately — and if it is not, we will say so.
Prefer to write? Send an enquiry or email info@apexfundingpartners.co.uk.