Bridging Finance Case Studies Southampton

The borrower picked up a tired three-bed mid-terrace at a Hampshire regional auction. The property had been let for the previous eight years and came to auction with an outgoing tenancy that had ended in dispute. Decorative condition was poor and the EPC sat at E, which a term lender would not have accepted without remedial works. Standard residential mortgage lenders would not touch it as-is.

We had the auction pack on our desk by 09:00 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 to compress searches. Completion landed 13 working days after the hammer fell, with 15 days of the auction clock still on it.

A portfolio landlord picked up a two-bed semi in Bitterne at a regional auction sold with a sitting tenant. The auction pack flagged that vacant possession could be agreed by side-letter ahead of completion, which most BTL term lenders would still treat as too short a vacancy window to refinance off cleanly. The landlord wanted to complete on time, settle the tenancy properly, and then refinance to BTL once vacant possession was confirmed.

We pitched the case to a panel lender comfortable with tenanted security and a clear refinance route. The 6-month bridge funded the full purchase at 70% LTV against the open-market value. The tenant moved out three weeks after completion, the property was redecorated and offered to a new tenant on a standard 12-month AST, and the term BTL refinance was lined up at month 4.

An experienced flipper bought a three-bed end-terrace in SO19 at auction with the intent to refurbish over 12 weeks and list for sale at a target uplift of around £60,000. The property had significant damp issues to the rear wall, dated electrics throughout, no working kitchen and a bathroom last touched in the 1990s. A standard mortgage was not available and a self-funded refurb would have tied up cash needed for the next deal.

We packaged the case to a refurbishment-specialist on the panel who funded the purchase at 72% LTV against open-market value plus 100% of the works budget across two stage payments. The packaging included contractor quotes, a schedule of works covering the damp remediation, electrics, kitchen, bathroom and full redecoration, and a target gross development value with comparable evidence across recent Sholing sales.

A landlord with three existing student HMOs in the SO17 belt bought a five-bed Edwardian terrace close to the University of Southampton with the intent to license it as a four-room HMO. Southampton's HMO licensing regime applies across most of SO17 and the works needed covered fire-rated doors, mains-linked alarms, an updated kitchen, an additional shower room and minor layout adjustments to meet the licensable HMO standards.

We pitched the case to a panel lender comfortable with HMO conversion and a parallel licence application. The bridge funded the purchase at 72% LTV with the works budget released in two tranches after sign-off. The HMO licence was granted at month 4 and works completed at month 5. The specialist HMO BTL refinance was lined up 60 days ahead of the bridge term end.

An investor bought a tired three-bed Victorian terrace in Freemantle with the plan to extend the rear, relocate the kitchen, rewire and replumb the property top to bottom, and refinance onto a standard BTL once works were complete. The rear extension required full planning consent which had been applied for but not yet granted at the point of purchase. The works budget was £55,000 and the project sat squarely in heavy-refurbishment territory.

We packaged the case to a heavy-refurbishment specialist on the panel who accepted the planning-pending status with a conditional release of the extension element of the works tranche. The 12-month bridge funded the purchase at 65% LTV against open-market value, with the works budget released in three stage payments after quantity-surveyor sign-off. Planning was granted at month 3 and the extension element of the works started at month 4.

A retired couple in their early 70s wanted to complete on a smaller property in Bitterne Park before their larger Bassett family home had been sold. They had owned the Bassett property for 28 years, it was unencumbered, and they had agreed an asking price with an estate agent that week. The onward purchase had a fixed exchange deadline three weeks out which they stood to lose if they could not exchange in time.

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 inside the agreed window.

A family moving from a four-bed semi in Highfield to a larger detached property in Chandlers Ford in the Eastleigh borough had agreed exchange on both sides and were two weeks from completing. The buyer on their Highfield home pulled out at the eleventh hour. The seller of the Chandlers Ford property was not willing to wait. The family stood to lose the onward purchase, a school-catchment moves driven by an offer of a place for the eldest child.

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 lender quoted indicative terms inside 24 hours at the regulated rate band, with a 6-month term against expected sale of the Highfield home. Funds completed in 11 working days and the Chandlers Ford purchase completed inside the original deadline.

A regional developer reached practical completion on a twelve-unit apartment scheme close to the Ocean Village waterfront. The development facility was at expensive dev rates and had reached the end of its initial term. Six of the twelve units had buyers under offer subject to contract; the developer wanted to keep the remaining six as a long-term BTL hold within a special purpose vehicle, refinancing onto a portfolio BTL term loan once stabilised.

We refinanced the developer off the dev facility onto a 12-month development-exit bridge at materially lower monthly cost. The case priced at 65% LTV against the gross development value, with the lender accepting unit sales as a partial redemption mechanism and a long-stop full refinance onto a portfolio BTL on the held units. The packaging covered the build cost reconciliation, individual unit valuations and the portfolio BTL term sheet in principle.

A landlord owned a Bedford Place mixed-use building close to the Oxford Street and Bedford Place retail and hospitality strip: ground-floor retail unit with two one-bed flats above. The commercial tenant's lease was six months from expiry and the landlord wanted breathing room to re-gear the lease at a higher rent, refurbish the common parts and stabilise the income before refinancing onto a long-term commercial term loan 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 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 21% higher rent and the residential common parts had been refreshed.

An established Hampshire landlord wanted to raise £220,000 quickly to fund a portfolio purchase elsewhere in SO19. His owner-occupied family home in Bassett had a low-rate fixed first-charge residential mortgage with three years left to run that he did not want to break early because of redemption penalties. He needed second-charge bridging behind the existing first-charge.

Second-charge bridging behind a regulated first-charge required a careful regulated treatment, with the first-charge lender's consent obtained in writing as part of the packaging. We introduced the borrower to one of our FCA-authorised partners for the regulated activity. The second-charge ran at 1.10% per month over 9 months with a combined LTV of around 65% across both charges. The lender took comfort from clear equity headroom and a defined exit through a planned remortgage at the end of the existing fixed-rate period.