SPV bridging loans, arranged by company bridging specialists.

Three situations account for most of the SPV bridging we arrange. Auctions first: exchange happens on the day and completion follows in 28, occasionally 14, and no term lender moves at that pace, so the bridge completes the purchase and a company buy-to-let mortgage replaces it at leisure. The unmortgageable second: property with no kitchen or bathroom, structural issues, non-standard construction or a sitting problem that fails a term lender's valuation. It is often exactly this stock that carries the discount worth buying, and bridging is the only debt that touches it. Refurbishment third: light works to lift rent and value before letting, or heavier projects, reconfigurations, HMO conversions, where the lender advances against the end value as well as the purchase price.

A fourth, quieter use is chain repair and timing: a company that wants to complete on a purchase before a remortgage or sale elsewhere has released its capital. The common thread is that bridging buys time and certainty, and is priced accordingly; it is a tool for a defined job, never a substitute for term debt.

The special purpose vehicle borrows, the lender takes a first charge over the property and personal guarantees from the directors, and the term runs 6 to 18 months in most cases. Interest is the structural difference from a mortgage: rather than paying monthly from rent the property does not yet earn, the interest is usually retained, deducted from the advance at the start, or rolled up, added to the balance and settled at exit. Pricing is quoted monthly, and as typical market practice sits at a multiple of term-mortgage cost, which is why every conversation we have about bridging starts with how the loan ends.

Leverage runs to around 70 to 75% of the purchase price on standard cases, and on refurbishment projects lenders will also lend against gross development value, advancing works funding in stages as the project progresses. A company with other unencumbered property can sometimes cross-charge it to reduce the cash deposit required, a structure worth modelling rather than defaulting into.

Materially more, and the comparison should be made in pounds over the actual holding period rather than in rates. The components as typical market practice: monthly interest at a multiple of term-mortgage cost, an arrangement fee around 2% of the facility, valuation and legal fees on both sides, and sometimes an exit fee, which we negotiate away wherever the lender's structure allows. Because interest is retained or rolled rather than paid monthly, the true cost is partly hidden in a reduced day-one advance or an inflated redemption figure, so two superficially similar quotes can differ by thousands once both are run to the same redemption date.

The discipline that keeps a bridge profitable is simple: the deal has to work at month twelve, not month six. We model every bridge at its full term plus a contingency period, and if the project only stacks up on a best-case timeline, that is a finding, not a formatting issue. Used correctly, a bridge that costs a few thousand pounds buys access to a discount, an auction or a value-add that earns a multiple of its cost; used as a substitute for preparation, it quietly eats the margin it was supposed to capture.

Less than a term lender, but nothing is waived. The company should be a clean special purpose vehicle, property SIC codes, no trading baggage, and can be days old. Directors face credit checks and give personal guarantees as standard, usually with independent legal advice. The deposit needs documented provenance whether it arrives as a director's loan, an intercompany loan from a trading business or released equity, and lenders will want to see the cash, not a promise of it. For refurbishment cases, evidence of works costing and, on heavier projects, a schedule of works and contractor details join the pack. Experience helps pricing on big conversions but a first project does not close the market; it narrows it.

Structuring the deposit correctly matters at exit too: see the director's loan deposits guide and the personal guarantees guide.

The bridging names on our panel include Together, LendInvest, Shawbrook, MT Finance, alongside specialist term lenders whose bridge-to-let ranges link the short loan to its exit product in a single decision. Appetite splits by job: some price auction speed, some heavy refurbishment, some larger facilities at lower leverage. Because the bridge is only half the transaction, we place it with one eye on which term lender will refinance the company afterwards, there is no value in a cheap bridge that the wrong term market cannot take out.

The vehicle itself is explained under SPV mortgages; refurbished HMO conversions exit through limited company HMO mortgages; and refinances of seasoned stock run through limited company remortgages. Local pricing and rent context for any target market sits across our 244 town pages.