Bridging Loan Case Studies Reading

The borrower picked up a vacant three-bed mid-terrace at a Berkshire regional auction with a 28-day completion deadline. The property was tenantable shell only: no kitchen, dated bathroom, full electrics rewire required. Standard mortgage lenders would not touch it.

We had the auction pack on our desk by 8am 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. Completion landed 13 working days after the hammer fell, with 15 days of the auction clock still on it.

An RG1 portfolio landlord bought a tired first-floor conversion flat at auction at £215,000 against a desktop open-market value of £270,000. The 72-year unexpired lease made the property unmortgageable on a term BTL product day one, but a lease extension was negotiable with the freeholder mid-term.

We placed the case with a panel lender comfortable with shorter leasehold security and an exit story that included a statutory lease extension. Indicative terms from LendInvest at 0.90% per month, 72% LTV against the as-is value, term 6 months. Cosmetic refurb to broker-marketable condition took 6 weeks, and the borrower started the lease-extension process in parallel.

An experienced Berkshire investor bought a three-bed end-of-terrace at a Tilehurst auction lot at £285,000 against a comparable open-market value north of £370,000. The auction pack flagged an open building regs query on a 2015 rear extension, which was enough to scare off two high-street BTL lenders the investor had tried for a pre-auction agreement in principle.

We placed the case with MT Finance, who priced it at 0.95% per month, 75% LTV against the auction price, term 9 months, with title insurance handling the building regs gap. Valuation completed inside 4 working days. Legals ran on an expedited basis and completion landed at 9 working days from the hammer fall, the fastest case we ran that month.

A landlord building out a Reading student portfolio bought a four-bed semi in RG6 Earley, a short walk from the University of Reading Whiteknights campus. The property already had four bedrooms and an existing HMO licence, so no structural change was required, but the kitchen, bathrooms, electrics and decoration needed full refresh to attract the £130 per room per week the catchment supports.

We packaged the case to Roma Finance, who priced a 9-month bridge at 0.95% per month, 72% LTV against the as-is value, with the works budget released in two stage payments after a surveyor sign-off. The works ran 10 weeks at a £40,000 budget. The borrower lined up four academic-year tenancies starting in September.

A family bought a tired five-bed Edwardian semi in RG4 Caversham as a long-term family home, planning a side-return extension under permitted development, a full structural refurbishment, and an EPC uplift from E to C. The property was unmortgageable at the point of purchase because two of the three bathrooms were stripped out and the kitchen had been removed. The family had savings to fund the works but needed bridging to cover the purchase plus the first tranche of works.

We packaged the case to United Trust Bank, who priced a 12-month heavy refurbishment bridge at 1.05% per month, 65% LTV against the as-is value, with the works element released in three stage payments. The borrower's intent was to refinance onto a standard owner-occupier mortgage once the property reached a habitable EPC C standard.

A retired couple in their late 60s in RG4 Caversham wanted to complete on a smaller Edwardian semi on the same side of the river before their larger existing family home sale completed. The buyers on their existing home had a chain that stalled two links down, and the onward seller was threatening to remarket if exchange did not happen inside three weeks.

Because the security was their existing owner-occupied home, the bridge was regulated. We introduced the couple to one of our FCA-authorised partners who carried out the regulated activity. The packaging team handled the case file and the partner placed the case with Hope Capital, who quoted at 0.65% per month, 65% LTV against the existing home. Funds completed in 13 working days against the existing home as security, and the onward purchase exchanged inside the deadline.

A family in RG6 Lower Earley needed to move to a four-bed in the same catchment area before the mid-March school admissions deadline so the children could be registered at the right primary school for September. Their existing house had been on the market for two weeks with one viewing and no offers. The onward seller would not wait.

The bridge was secured against the existing owner-occupied home, so the case was regulated. We introduced the family to our FCA-authorised partner. The partner placed the case with a regulated bridging specialist on the panel at 0.70% per month, 65% LTV. The 6-month term gave the existing house time to sell on the open market without the school deadline forcing a price cut.

A Reading developer reached practical completion on a twelve-apartment scheme on the Kennet Island regeneration corridor in RG2. The development facility was running at expensive dev rates and was 30 days from expiry. Four of the twelve units had buyers under offer subject to contract; the rest were marketed for either sale or rental, with the developer planning to retain a small portfolio against the Thames Valley professional tenant market.

We refinanced the developer off the dev facility onto a 12-month development-exit bridge with Octopus Real Estate at 0.85% per month, 65% LTV against gross development value. Drawdown released against QS sign-off and the lender accepted individual unit sales as the redemption mechanism, with partial retention on BTL refinance built into the exit plan.

A landlord owned a Broad Street mixed-use building in RG1: ground-floor retail unit with three one-bed flats over. The retail tenant's lease was 4 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 facility at a much better valuation.

We arranged a 12-month bridge with one of the panel specialists at 0.95% per month, 65% LTV. The lender took comfort from the residential income covering interest on a serviced basis, with the retail vacancy priced in. We packaged the lease re-gear plan as part of the exit story, with the target tenant drawn from the professional-services pool servicing the Thames Valley Park occupiers. Six months in, the landlord signed a new 10-year retail lease at a 28% higher headline rent.

A family in RG4 Sonning owned a five-bed family home with an existing first-charge mortgage at a competitive 5-year fix that had three years still to run. They wanted to release £285,000 of equity to fund a buy-to-let acquisition in the wider Berkshire market, but did not want to break the existing fix early because the early-repayment charge alone was higher than 18 months of bridging interest.

Because the bridge sat behind the existing owner-occupier first charge against their main residence, the case was regulated. We introduced the family to our FCA-authorised partner. The partner placed the case with a regulated second-charge bridging specialist at 1.05% per month, 65% combined LTV against the £1.05 million valuation. The first-charge lender consented to the second charge. Funds drew down to the borrower's solicitor and the onward purchase completed.