Bridging Loan Case Studies Kent

The borrower picked up a vacant two-bed seafront flat at a Kent regional auction with a 28-day completion deadline. The property was tenantable shell only: no kitchen, dated bathroom, full strip-out required. Standard mortgage lenders would not touch it and the auction pack included a query on short-let licensing that needed answering before completion.

We had the auction pack on our desk by 8am the next morning. Indicative terms came back from MT Finance and one other panel lender inside 24 hours. The borrower signed the better of the two and we packaged the file the same week. Valuation landed inside 4 working days and legals ran in parallel using title insurance to clear the licensing query. Completion landed 13 working days after the hammer fell, with 15 days of the auction clock still on it.

An experienced landlord bought a six-bed Victorian house in ME14 for conversion into a five-let HMO. The property sat inside a Maidstone Borough Council Article 4 designation, which removed permitted-development rights for HMO conversion. 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 to a C rating.

We packaged the case to a heavy-refurbishment lender 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 against United Trust Bank's monitoring surveyor sign-off. Planning came through at month 3 and works completed at month 10 with full compliance certification.

A family moving within Sevenoaks found a five-bed family home in the prep-school catchment they wanted, with a vendor unwilling to wait for their own house to go under offer. The family stood to lose the onward property and miss the September school year 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. Hope Capital quoted indicative terms inside 24 hours at the regulated rate band of 0.65% per month on a 60% LTV against the £3 million existing home. Funds drawn 12 working days from enquiry, onward purchase exchanged on time, family moved in for the start of the school year.

A regional developer reached practical completion on a twelve-unit residential scheme inside the Ashford International commuter belt. The development facility ran at expensive dev rates and was 45 days from expiry. Five of the twelve units had buyers under offer subject to contract but had not exchanged; the remaining seven were on the market with two viewings booked.

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 with the Ashford-based agent, and individual unit valuations against comparable evidence in the TN23 postcode area.

A small developer secured a tired two-storey Folkestone town-centre office building close to the harbour regeneration zone. The plan was a Class MA conversion to six self-contained flats under permitted development rights. Prior approval had been granted by Folkestone and Hythe District Council, but a term mortgage was not viable until conversion was complete.

We packaged the case to a heavy-refurbishment funder who priced the bridge at 65% LTV against gross development value with a 15-month term to allow comfortable build and sales windows. United Trust Bank carried the case with a three-stage works drawdown against quantity surveyor sign-off. The build phase ran 9 months including external works and full compliance to current building regs, with a 6-month sales and refinance window built into the term.

A landlord with an existing Canterbury student-let portfolio bought a tired three-bed terrace in CT2 within walking distance of the University of Kent. The plan was conversion to a four-let student HMO with ensuite shower rooms to compete with newer purpose-built student accommodation. Canterbury's Article 4 designation around the campus required planning consent, which had been granted prior to purchase.

We arranged a 9-month bridge with Roma Finance at 70% LTV against open-market value, plus a works tranche released against staged completion certificates. The structural alteration to add ensuite plumbing took 11 weeks. Compliance certification (fire, gas, electrical, EPC) ran the following 3 weeks. The deadline driver was the September academic year tenancy market; works completed in time for August lettings.

A buyer acquired a tired four-bed Victorian villa in central Tonbridge that needed a full internal refurbishment before the family could move in. The property was unmortgageable on a high-street product: damp throughout the ground floor, dated wiring, no working kitchen and a bathroom suite from the 1970s. The buyer wanted to retain and restore the period features rather than strip them out.

Because the buyer intended to occupy after works, the bridge was regulated. We introduced the case to one of our FCA-authorised partners who carried out the regulated activity. The lender priced the bridge at 65% LTV with rolled interest, 9-month term, accepting an owner-occupier term refinance as the exit. The refurbishment ran 6 months including a sensitive specification on period mouldings, fireplaces and sash windows.

A small developer secured the option to buy a single-storey industrial unit in DA1 with a residential planning application already submitted for fourteen flats. The site sat close to the Eastern Quarry and Ebbsfleet Garden City development corridor. The seller wanted a 6-week completion regardless of the planning timeline. The developer had a clear thesis on residential uplift but no dev facility lined up until planning was determined.

Land-with-planning bridges where the consent is pending narrow the lender appetite quickly. We packaged the case to a specialist development-lending desk who took comfort from the strong site location, the developer's track record on three previous Kent schemes, and the in-principle dev-facility commitment subject to consent. The bridge priced at 55% LTV against current industrial-use value, term 18 months, to allow time for planning determination and dev-facility drawdown.

An investor with existing North Norfolk holiday lets bought a two-bed cottage near Whitstable harbour with the plan to refurbish and let through the year as a coastal holiday let. The property had damp in the kitchen wall, a tired roof and a 1990s bathroom that needed full replacement. Standard BTL lenders would not touch it; specialist holiday-let lenders would not lend until it was in mortgageable condition.

We arranged a 9-month bridge at 70% LTV against open-market value, plus a works tranche, with Roma Finance pricing the case competitively given the borrower's existing holiday-let portfolio. The works ran 11 weeks: full damp treatment, roof recover, new kitchen and bathroom, period-feel respec on the interior. The property listed on a coastal holiday-let platform from week 14 of ownership.

A portfolio landlord held an eight-flat freehold block in central Tunbridge Wells. The leases were all long; the freehold itself was the security. The common parts (entrance hall, stairwell, communal garden, ageing lift) needed full refurbishment to support a freehold revaluation and a refinance to a longer-term product at a sharper rate. The Section 20 leaseholder consultation had been completed and works costed.

We arranged a 12-month bridge against the freehold at 60% LTV with Octane Capital, taking comfort from the residential rental income from the landlord's other portfolio properties to service the interest. Works ran 7 months including lift replacement, full redecoration, new flooring and a remodelled communal garden. Mid-term valuation reflected the works at the freehold level.