Bridging Loan Case Studies Sussex

An experienced South East investor bought a tired town-centre retail unit with a self-contained one-bed flat over at a Clive Emson auction. Vacant possession on both parts, retail unit dilapidated, flat needing kitchen and bathroom. Standard mortgage lenders would not touch the asset until both parts were stabilised. The 28-day completion clock was already running.

The auction pack landed with us by 8am the next morning. Indicative terms came back from two panel lenders inside 24 hours. We pitched MT Finance and one mid-market specialist; MT Finance offered the better terms and turned the valuation around inside 4 working days. Legals ran in parallel using title insurance to bridge a missing planning-history note on the Class E retail use. Completion landed at 16 working days, well inside the auction clock.

An established BTL landlord with a Brighton portfolio bought a five-bed Edwardian house in BN2 for conversion into a four-let professional HMO. The property sat inside Brighton & Hove's 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 from a D to a C rating.

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 of £85,000 released in three stage payments. Planning came through at month 3 and works completed at month 9 with a quantity surveyor signing off each stage. The property let to professional sharers tied to the University of Sussex and the Royal Sussex County Hospital workforce.

A semi-retired professional couple living in a six-bed Lewes home found the onward five-bed period detached they wanted to downsize into within the Glyndebourne opera belt. Their existing house was under offer but the buyer's chain was stuck two links down. They stood to lose the onward purchase if they could not exchange within 4 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 Hope Capital quoted indicative terms inside 24 hours at the regulated rate band. Funds completed in 14 working days against the existing home as security, and the onward purchase exchanged on time. The bridge sat at a comfortable 65% LTV against a strong valuation backed by Lewes comparable evidence.

A regional developer reached practical completion on a ten-unit scheme on the Gatwick fringe within the Crawley M23 commuter belt. The development facility ran at expensive dev rates and was 30 days from expiry. Four of the ten units had buyers under offer subject to contract but had not exchanged. The other six were on the market with no firm offers yet, in a steady but unspectacular Crawley sales market.

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 unit-by-unit valuations against Crawley comparable evidence, and the developer's plan to retain four units on BTL for medium-term hold against the Gatwick employment pull.

A landlord owned a Worthing seafront mixed-use building: ground-floor restaurant with three one-bed flats over. The restaurant tenant's lease was 5 months from expiry and the landlord wanted breathing room to re-gear the lease at a higher rent (the previous lease had been signed pre-pandemic), 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. The lender took comfort from the residential income covering interest on a serviced basis, with the restaurant vacancy priced in. We packaged the lease re-gear plan as part of the exit story. Seven months in, the restaurant tenant signed a new 10-year lease at a 28% higher rent, helped by the Worthing seafront regeneration improving footfall and the Towner-style cultural anchor at Eastbourne pulling visitors into the wider coast.

An experienced developer bought a tired three-storey 1970s office building on the Chichester city ring road for conversion to six one and two-bed flats under Class MA permitted development rights. The Class MA prior approval window required works to be completed within three years of approval and the building had been vacant long enough to satisfy the vacancy condition. Standard mortgage lenders were not interested in the asset pre-conversion.

We packaged the case to United Trust Bank, who priced a 12-month bridge at 65% LTV against the open-market value as an office, with the works budget of £180,000 released in three stage payments against quantity-surveyor sign-off. The works covered new flooring, full electrical and plumbing rewire, kitchen and bathroom fit-out across all six flats, and EPC uplift to a C rating. Works ran 8 months and overran by 4 weeks against the original schedule, manageable inside the 12-month term.

A South East-based holiday-let investor with three existing properties in Sussex and Kent identified a two-bed period cottage inside the Rye Citadel conservation area as her next acquisition. The cottage was a Grade II listed building, which excluded most high-street holiday-let products on the basis of insurance and conservation overlays. She wanted to buy on a 6 to 9 month bridge then refinance onto a specialist holiday-let term mortgage once she had three months of trading evidence.

We packaged the case to a lender on the panel comfortable with listed Sussex coastal stock, at 70% LTV against the open-market value. The bridge funded the full purchase with rolled interest over 9 months. The borrower furnished the cottage and listed it on the main holiday-let platforms within 4 weeks of completion. The Rye location pulled steady bookings through the autumn shoulder season and a strong run through the spring half-term and Easter period.

A professional couple bought a six-bed Victorian villa in central Horsham with a vision of restoring the original layout, opening up the rear ground floor, and upgrading the energy efficiency from a D to a C rating. The property was mortgageable in principle on a term product, but not on the works budget required and not at the timeline they needed. They wanted to complete on the purchase within 6 weeks of offer accepted and start works immediately.

Because they intended to occupy the property on completion of works, the case was a regulated bridge with onward refinance to an owner-occupier term mortgage at completion. We introduced them to one of our FCA-authorised partners who carried out the regulated activity. Hope Capital priced the bridge at 0.85% per month, 65% LTV, with a 12-month term and works budget of £165,000 released in four stage payments. The works ran 8 months including 6 weeks of structural reinforcement to the rear extension.

A Sussex-based BTL portfolio landlord bought a converted four-flat seafront block in Bexhill at a regional auction. The four flats sat on separate long leases over a common freehold owned by an external freeholder, with all four flats vacant at the point of purchase. The auctioneer's pack flagged some service-charge dispute history but no enforcement. The landlord wanted to refurbish the common parts, let all four flats, then refinance onto a portfolio BTL loan.

We pitched the case to two panel lenders. LendInvest came back at 68% LTV against an aggregate valuation of £1,020,000, term 12 months, with a £35,000 common-parts works budget released on quantity-surveyor sign-off. Auction completion landed at 18 working days using title insurance and a streamlined block valuation. Common parts works ran 10 weeks. All four flats let within 6 weeks of works completion, helped by the De La Warr Pavilion drawing visitors into the wider Bexhill seafront.

A young family in Eastbourne had agreed the onward purchase of a four-bed semi closer to the school catchment they wanted, with completion required before the September school year. Two weeks before exchange, the buyer on their existing home pulled out. The onward seller was prepared to wait 4 weeks but not longer. The family stood to lose both the onward purchase and the school place.

Because the security was their existing owner-occupied home, the bridge was regulated. We introduced them to one of our FCA-authorised partners. Hope Capital quoted at 0.70% per month against the new home with first charge on the outgoing property at 65% LTV. Funds completed in 12 working days from enquiry, which gave the family two clear weeks of margin against the onward seller's patience. The outgoing property went back on the market the day after the bridge completed.