Your Home Finance
Bridging buys you time — it doesn't buy you a cheaper mortgage.
Bridging is priced monthly and repaid in months, not years. How you exit — sale, remortgage or refinance — decides far more than the rate you're quoted.
30+ years
short-term lending advice
Exit strategy
tested first
Whole of market
access
Total cost
not monthly rate
Situation grid
What's the deadline you're trying to beat?
How your case is assessed
How bridging lenders assess a case
Bridging underwriting looks almost nothing like a residential mortgage. Income matters far less; security, deadline and repayment route matter far more.
The exit route
This is the underwriting decision. A sale already under offer, or a remortgage the borrower clearly qualifies for, is a strong exit. 'We'll sell it eventually' is not. Weak exits attract higher pricing, shorter terms, or a decline.
Security and loan-to-value
Bridging is secured on property — sometimes on more than one. Gross loan-to-value typically runs to around 70–75%, and because retained interest and fees sit inside the facility, the net amount you receive is lower than the loan you owe.
How interest is charged
Interest is quoted monthly, not annually, and can be retained, rolled up or serviced. Retained interest reduces your day-one funds; rolled-up interest compounds. The structure changes what the bridge actually costs you.
Regulated or unregulated
A bridge secured on a property you live in or intend to live in is a regulated loan with the associated protections. Bridging on investment, commercial or auction property is usually unregulated. The category affects both process and safeguards.
You can't judge a bridge from a monthly rate on a comparison page — we price the whole facility and pressure-test the exit before anything is committed.
Specialist insight
Not every bridging case sits in the same place
Vague exit · high gross LTV · single security · tight deadline
Higher challenge
Fewer lenders willing to price it · shorter terms and higher fees · genuine risk of needing a second, more expensive bridge to repay the first.
Evidenced exit · sensible LTV · clear timescale
More lender choice
Broader panel and keener pricing · realistic drawdown timescales · the refinance or sale lined up before the facility starts.
Independent reviews
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Your adviser
Jay Sabine
Expert mortgage adviser specialising in complex cases including adverse credit, self-employed borrowers, and first-time buyers. All advice is tailored to your individual circumstances.
Content reviewed: 3 August 2026
CeMAP awarded by The London Institute of Banking & Finance. Cert CII (MP) awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Specialist in bridging finance and short-term lending
Helping clients with complex credit histories for over 30 years · CeMAP, Cert CII (MP) · FCA regulated
“Nobody should take a bridge because it's available. The only question that matters is how it gets repaid — if the exit is vague, the rate is irrelevant.”
Reviewed by Jay Sabine · Mortgage adviser · 30+ years' experience
Lived experience
Mistakes we repeatedly see
Not theory — the patterns that keep turning a short-term solution into a long-term problem.
Taking a bridge with an unproven exit
The borrower assumes the remortgage will be straightforward, then discovers the property or their income doesn't fit a term lender. The bridge runs on, extension fees apply, and the cost multiplies against an asset that hasn't moved.
Comparing monthly rates instead of total cost
A lower monthly rate with a two-point arrangement fee, an exit fee and dual legal costs can cost more over six months than a higher-rate facility with clean fees. Only the total, over your realistic term, means anything.
Underestimating how long the exit takes
A sale can slip by months; a remortgage needs valuation, legals and often a clean rental or occupancy history. Bridges arranged for the best-case timeline are the ones that need extending at the worst possible moment.
Forgetting that retained interest reduces the funds
If interest and fees are deducted at drawdown, the money that lands is meaningfully less than the loan amount. People plan the purchase on the gross figure and arrive short at completion.
Real client scenarios
Real bridging journeys
Based on genuine cases we've helped with. Personal details have been changed to protect privacy.
Chain collapsed — purchase saved with a funded exit
- Buyer withdrew
- Purchase at risk
- Six-month bridge
- Sale completed
Situation
Movers had exchanged on their onward purchase when their own buyer withdrew days before completion.
Challenge
Losing the purchase meant losing the deposit and the house. Taking any bridge quickly risked a facility with no proven way out if the sale took longer to replace.
What changed
We evidenced the property's realistic resale position, structured a six-month regulated bridge with the interest serviced monthly, and agreed the term against a worst-case sale timeline rather than the hoped-for one.
Outcome
The purchase completed on time, the previous home sold within four months, and the bridge was redeemed without an extension.
Why it worked
The bridge was sized and timed against the slow version of the sale. When it took longer than anyone wanted, nothing broke.
Talked out of a bridge — the deal didn't need one
- Auction deadline
- Bridge quoted
- Standard route found
- Five-figure saving
Situation
A buyer had been quoted a twelve-month bridge to buy a tenanted property, assuming no term lender would move fast enough.
Challenge
The bridge plus refinance meant two sets of fees, two valuations and two legal bills — for a property that already met buy-to-let criteria as it stood.
What changed
We tested the property against lenders who could work to the auction timescale and placed a standard buy-to-let application directly instead of bridging first.
Outcome
Completed inside the deadline on a term product, avoiding the arrangement, exit and duplicate legal costs entirely.
Why it worked
The assumption was that speed only comes from bridging. It doesn't — and checking cost nothing.
What happens after you get in touch
From first contact to a clear answer
What happens when you get in touch — no hard search at this stage.
- 1
We understand the deadline, the property, the security available and how you intend to repay (no hard search)
- 2
Jay stress-tests the exit — sale, remortgage or refinance — and how long it realistically takes
- 3
We price the whole bridge: arrangement, interest, exit and legal costs, not the headline monthly rate
- 4
If proceeding: terms → valuation → legals → drawdown, with the repayment route already lined up
Reassurance
- Free initial review — before any hard credit search
- We won't arrange a bridge where the exit isn't credible
- If waiting, renegotiating or a standard mortgage works better, we'll say so
Before you enquire
What we'll ask you on the first call
Straightforward questions — no hard credit search at this stage.
- The deadline you're working to, and what happens if it's missed
- The property or properties available as security, and their realistic value
- Exactly how the bridge gets repaid — sale, remortgage or refinance — and the evidence for it
- Whether you'd live in the property, and whether you can service the interest monthly
Advisory promise
When we might tell you not to bridge
We won't always tell you a bridge is the answer.
We may advise against bridging where the exit depends on a sale that hasn't been tested, where a standard mortgage could still meet your deadline, or where the fees over a realistic term would consume more than the opportunity is worth.
Bridging is the right tool for a narrow set of problems and an expensive answer to everything else. If waiting, renegotiating the deadline or a term mortgage serves you better, we'll say so. We give advice — not just applications.
Straight answers
Common questions about bridging loans
Our promise
What we'll never do
- Tell you to apply if it won't work
- Send applications everywhere
- Recommend borrowing beyond your budget
- Hide bad news
We don't sell speed for its own sake. Bridging is expensive money — it has to earn its place against the alternative.
Find out whether bridging is the right tool
Tell us your deadline, the property and how you plan to repay — we'll tell you honestly whether a bridge fits or whether something cheaper does.
We don't arrange bridging finance until the exit route has been evidenced and the total cost compared against waiting or a standard mortgage.
Bridging decisions are usually made under deadline pressure. Five minutes now is what stops an expensive commitment with no clear way out.
£500 adviser fee — payable on completion.
Get Clear, Honest Mortgage Advice — Before You Apply
Free consultation • No credit search • FCA regulated
Struggled to get approved elsewhere? We specialise in complex cases including CCJs, self-employed income, and declined applications. Over 90% of our clients had concerns about their situation before speaking to us.
The Basics
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