Bridging Loan Case Studies Hertfordshire

The borrower picked up a vacant ground-floor retail unit at SDL Property Auctions on the High Street side of central Watford with a 28-day completion deadline. The unit was tenantable shell only: dated shopfront, no working WC, full strip-out of the previous coffee-shop fit-out required. Standard commercial mortgage lenders would not touch it without tenant in place.

We had the auction pack on our desk by 8am the next morning. Indicative terms came back from two panel lenders inside 24 hours. The borrower signed the better of the two and we packaged the file the same week. Valuation landed inside 5 working days and legals ran in parallel using title insurance. Completion landed 12 working days after the hammer fell, with 16 days of the auction clock still on it.

An experienced landlord bought a four-bed semi in old Stevenage off-market for conversion into a five-let HMO with a single-storey rear extension. The borough's HMO policy required full planning rather than permitted development. Planning consent had been applied for but was not yet granted at the point of purchase. The works also required structural alteration for compliant fire separation and an EPC uplift from D to C.

We packaged the case to a heavy-refurbishment specialist on the panel who accepted the planning-pending status with a conditional release of the works tranche. The 12-month bridge funded the purchase at 65% LTV with the works budget released in three stage payments. Planning came through at month 2 and works completed at month 10 with a quantity surveyor signing off each stage.

A professional family in Harpenden found the onward five-bed detached they had been waiting two years for. Their existing four-bed in AL5 had not yet gone under offer. The vendor of the onward property held a hard 6-week exchange deadline. Without bridging the family would have lost the new home.

Because the security was their existing owner-occupied home, the bridge was regulated. We introduced them to one of our FCA-authorised partners who carried out the regulated activity. The packaging team handled the case file and Hope Capital quoted indicative terms inside 24 hours at the regulated rate band of 0.65% per month. Funds completed in 14 working days against the existing AL5 home as security, and the onward purchase exchanged on time at the vendor's deadline.

A regional developer reached practical completion on a twelve-unit residential scheme on the edge of Hatfield, walking distance to the station and the University of Hertfordshire campus. The development facility ran at expensive dev rates and was 30 days from expiry. Four of the twelve units had buyers under offer subject to contract but had not exchanged. The remaining eight were on the market with no offers yet.

We refinanced the developer off the dev facility onto a development-exit bridge with Octopus Real Estate at materially lower monthly cost. The case priced at 65% LTV against the gross development value, term 12 months, with the lender accepting individual unit sales as the redemption mechanism. The packaging covered the build cost reconciliation, the marketing strategy through the local agents, and individual unit valuations against comparable evidence in AL10.

A small developer bought a vacant three-storey office building in the Maylands area of Hemel Hempstead with Class MA prior approval in place for conversion to fourteen one-bed and two-bed residential units. The previous owner had run the prior-approval process to grant but had not started works. The building required full mechanical and electrical strip-out, new layouts on all three floors, and a planning condition on the ground-floor commercial frontage to be resolved.

We packaged the case to United Trust Bank as a heavy-refurb-plus-conversion bridge with a 14-month term. The lender funded the acquisition at 65% LTV against the open-market value with prior approval, plus the full works budget released in four stage payments tied to QS sign-off. The total facility was sized against the projected gross development value across all fourteen units.

A regional developer secured an off-market deal on a former light-industrial unit just off the A120 in Bishops Stortford with full planning consent for demolition and replacement with six three-bed terraced houses. The seller wanted completion inside 5 weeks. The developer had a development facility lined up with a specialist lender, but it would not draw down until the pre-commencement planning conditions were discharged and demolition was underway.

Land-and-buildings bridges where the security includes a property due for demolition are a narrower lender appetite than standard property bridges. The lender takes a careful look at the planning consent, the pre-commencement conditions, and the credibility of the dev facility waiting at exit. We packaged the case to a specialist development-lending desk at MT Finance who took comfort from a clean planning approval, a known developer track record and an in-principle commitment from the dev lender.

A landlord owned a Borehamwood mixed-use building on Shenley Road: ground-floor retail unit with four one-bed flats over. The commercial tenant's lease was 5 months from expiry and the landlord wanted breathing room to re-gear the lease at a higher rent reflecting the Elstree Studios employment uplift in the area, refurbish the common parts and stabilise the income before refinancing onto a long-term commercial mortgage at a much better valuation.

We arranged a 12-month bridge against the building at 65% LTV with Octane Capital. The lender took comfort from the residential income covering interest on a serviced basis, with the commercial vacancy priced in. We packaged the lease re-gear plan as part of the exit story. Five months in, the commercial tenant signed a new 10-year lease at a 28% higher rent reflecting the local Studios uplift.

A retired couple in their early 70s wanted to complete on a smaller two-bed period cottage near Rickmansworth station before their larger six-bed Victorian villa in the same postcode finished going through the sale process. The buyers on the existing villa were ready in principle but their chain had a delay further down. The couple stood to lose the onward cottage if they could not exchange within 5 weeks.

Because the security was their existing owner-occupied home, the bridge was regulated. We introduced them to one of our FCA-authorised partners who carried out the regulated activity. The packaging team handled the case file and the lender quoted indicative terms inside 24 hours at the regulated rate band of 0.70% per month. Funds completed in 16 working days against the existing villa as security, and the onward cottage exchanged on time.

An owner-occupier client bought a Grade II listed townhouse in the conservation area near St Albans Cathedral. The property was structurally sound but needed sympathetic internal refurbishment: re-plastering with lime, repair of original sash windows, replacement of a 1970s kitchen with a fit-out compliant with listed-building consent, and a new bathroom. Standard owner-occupier mortgages would not lend until the property was in habitable condition with full listed-building consents discharged.

The case was regulated because the security would be the borrower's home on completion of works. We introduced the borrower to our FCA-authorised partner who carried out the regulated activity, and packaged the bridge through one of our specialist regulated bridging lenders. The 10-month bridge funded the acquisition at 68% LTV plus a £95,000 works tranche released in two stage payments after a conservation officer site inspection.

A young professional family in Welwyn Garden City found a four-bed detached in the AL7 postcode they wanted to upsize into. Their existing three-bed semi in the same town, original garden-city stock from the 1930s, had only just gone on the market. The vendor of the onward property held a 5-week exchange deadline. Without bridging the family would have lost the larger home.

Because the security was their existing owner-occupied home, the bridge was regulated. We introduced them to one of our FCA-authorised partners who carried out the regulated activity. The packaging team handled the case file and the lender quoted indicative terms inside 24 hours at the regulated rate band of 0.75% per month, reflecting a slightly higher LTV than the most premium cases. Funds completed in 13 working days against the existing semi as security, and the onward purchase exchanged inside the vendor's window.