Bridging Loan Case Studies Devon

An investor client bought a tired Torquay seafront mixed-use building at a South West regional auction with a 28-day completion clock. The ground-floor retail unit had been vacant for six months with a recent change-of-use application pending; the two one-bed flats above were already let on standard ASTs.

We had the auction pack on our desk by 9am 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 7 working days and legals ran in parallel using title insurance to bridge the planning history gap. Completion landed 18 working days after the hammer fell, with 10 days of the auction clock still on it.

An experienced landlord bought a four-bed Victorian terrace in PL4 Mutley for conversion into a five-let student HMO. The property sat inside Plymouth City Council's Article 4 designation around the university quarter, 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.

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 3 and works completed at month 8 with a quantity surveyor signing off each stage.

A retired couple in their early 70s wanted to complete on a smaller EX2 villa close to the cathedral before their larger existing home in EX4 finished going through the sale process. The buyers on the existing home were ready in principle but their chain had a delay further down. The couple stood to lose the onward purchase if they could not exchange within five 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. Funds completed in 13 working days against the existing home as security, and the onward purchase exchanged on time.

A Devon-based developer reached practical completion on an eight-unit scheme on the edge of Newton Abbot. The development facility ran at expensive dev rates and was 40 days from expiry. Three of the eight units had buyers under offer subject to contract but had not exchanged. The other five were on the market with two viewings booked but no firm offers.

We refinanced the developer off the dev facility onto a development-exit bridge 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, and individual unit valuations against comparable evidence in the TQ12 postcode.

A portfolio holiday-let operator wanted to add a fourth South Hams property to their book. The seller was a private individual selling to settle a probate matter and had agreed a fixed eight-week completion window with the buyer. The buyer's term holiday-let mortgage application had stalled at the lender's underwriting desk over a covenant restricting short-term letting on the title.

We packaged a 6-month bridge against the property at 70% LTV with the term holiday-let refinance as the named exit. The lender accepted the covenant on the basis that the buyer's solicitor had taken counsel's opinion confirming the covenant did not bite on holiday-let use as currently structured. Valuation was the longest single step because TQ8 panel valuers were 9 working days out at the time, but completion still landed at 21 working days from triage.

A landlord owned a Barnstaple mixed-use building: ground-floor retail unit with two two-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, refurbish the shopfront and stabilise the income before refinancing onto a long-term commercial term loan at a better valuation.

We arranged a 12-month bridge against the building at 65% LTV. 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. Seven months in, the commercial tenant signed a new 10-year lease at a 19% higher rent.

A couple in their late 60s wanted to downsize from a larger Honiton family home to a Grade II listed Regency cottage in Sidmouth with sea views across the Jurassic Coast. Their existing home was under offer at a slight discount to asking price; the buyers had a confirmed mortgage offer but the chain below them needed another six weeks to clear.

Because both the security and the onward purchase were owner-occupied, the bridge was regulated. We introduced the case to our FCA-authorised partner who carried out the regulated activity. Indicative terms came back at 0.70% per month within 24 hours. The listed-building status added one extra week to legals because the lender's solicitor wanted to confirm the permitted-works scope on file. Funds drew down at 17 working days from first call.

A self-build family bought a stone agricultural barn outside Tiverton with class Q permitted-development consent for residential conversion. The property had no mains drainage or mains gas, requiring a treatment plant and an LPG installation alongside the structural works. The build was scoped at 11 months with a 3-month buffer.

We packaged a 15-month bridge against the barn at 62% LTV with works drawdown released against monitoring-surveyor sign-off at four stage milestones. The borrower funded the deposit and initial enabling works from savings; the bridge took over from first-fix onward. The exit was a residential owner-occupier mortgage once the property hit habitable standard, with one of our broker partners pre-warming the term lender from month 9.

A landlord owned a Honiton high-street mixed-use building with a ground-floor cafe tenant and three studio flats above. The flats had originally been let on 12-month ASTs but two had lapsed into periodic tenancies with no recent rent reviews and inconsistent rent receipts on file. The incoming commercial term lender wanted six months of clean rent ledgers before underwriting the long-term refinance.

We arranged a 9-month bridge against the building at 65% LTV to clear the existing facility and give the landlord time to issue new fixed-term ASTs to the existing tenants, register the rent receipts properly, and present a clean six-month ledger to the term refinance lender. Indicative terms came back inside 24 hours. The bridge completed at 14 working days from first call.

A holiday-let portfolio operator wanted to add a Dartmouth waterfront townhouse before the late-spring booking surge. The vendor had a firm seven-week completion deadline tied to a family relocation. A traditional holiday-let term mortgage would not complete inside that window, particularly with the listed-building consent on the rear extension needing legal sign-off.

We packaged a 9-month bridge against the property at 70% LTV with the term holiday-let refinance named as the exit. Hope Capital priced the case at 0.95% per month and the case completed at 22 working days from triage. The listed-building consent was clarified through title insurance for the bridge phase, with the term lender able to satisfy itself fully at the slower pace of the refinance.