Bridging Loan Case Studies Bournemouth

The borrower picked up a vacant two-bed terrace at a Dorset regional auction with a 28-day completion deadline. The property was tenantable shell only: no kitchen, dated bathroom, full strip-out 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 12 working days after the hammer fell, with 16 days of the auction clock still on it.

An experienced landlord bought a three-bed inter-war semi in BH9 at auction with a tenant in place on an old periodic tenancy. The auction pack flagged that a previous loft conversion lacked a documented building regulations completion certificate. Two of the auction-finance specialists on our panel declined on the missing certificate; a third was willing to lend with title insurance covering the building-regs gap.

We packaged the case to the willing lender at 72% LTV against a £395,000 open-market value, with a clear plan to either obtain a regularisation certificate or insure around it. Indicative terms inside 24 hours. The tenancy was regularised by a new AST signed at month 2, which strengthened the BTL exit. Completion at 14 days.

A first-time BTL investor bought a two-bed converted ground-floor flat in BH7 at auction. The headache surfaced once the legal pack was reviewed: the lease required the freeholder's licence to sublet, the freeholder was an inactive company, and the lender wanted comfort before completion. The 28-day clock did not allow time to resurrect the freeholder.

We pitched the case to a lender on the panel who would accept a Restrictive Covenant indemnity policy in place of an active freeholder consent, provided the lease itself permitted subletting. The flat let to a long-term tenant inside the works window. Completion at 18 working days with the indemnity in place.

A first-time investor bought a tired three-bed mid-terrace in BH8 with the intent to refurbish to BTL standard and refinance onto a 5-year fixed BTL mortgage. The property was unmortgageable at purchase: damp issues, dated electrics, no working kitchen. He needed bridging to get over the line.

We pitched the case to three panel lenders and settled on a 9-month bridge at 72% LTV against the open-market value as-is, with the works budget on top released in two tranches. The refurb ran 11 weeks at a £28,000 budget. Once works were complete we lined up the BTL refinance with a high-street BTL lender at the new valuation, which came in at £325,000.

An experienced student-let landlord bought a five-bed Edwardian house in BH9 a short walk from the Bournemouth University Talbot Campus, with a view to converting to a five-let HMO. The property sat inside a BCP Council 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 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 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.

A retired couple in their late 60s wanted to complete on a smaller sea-view flat in BH4 before their larger existing four-bed home in Westbourne 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 4 weeks.

Because the security was their existing owner-occupied home, the bridge was regulated. We introduced them to one of our FCA-authorised partner firms who carried out the regulated activity. The lender 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 flat purchase exchanged on time.

A family of five had agreed the sale of their existing four-bed Talbot Woods home and found a five-bed detached in BH3 they wanted to buy onward. The buyer of their existing home was ready in principle but the buyer's mortgage offer slipped by 5 weeks because of a complication on the buyer's BTL portfolio. The onward seller was unwilling to wait.

Because the security was their existing owner-occupied home, the bridge was regulated. We introduced them to an FCA-authorised partner firm. The lender ran indicative terms in 24 hours and funded against the existing home at 62% LTV. Funds completed in 16 working days and the onward purchase exchanged the same week.

A regional developer reached practical completion on a nine-unit scheme close to the Lansdowne business district, with the development facility 45 days from expiry and running at punitive late-stage development rates. Three of the nine units had buyers under offer subject to contract; the other six were on the market with limited offer activity.

We refinanced the developer off the development 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 individual unit sales as the redemption mechanism. The packaging covered the build cost reconciliation, the marketing strategy, individual unit valuations and the retention plan for two units the developer wanted to keep on BTL.

A Dorset landlord owned a Boscombe-end mixed-use building on the Old Christchurch Road retail spine: ground-floor retail unit with two two-bed flats over. The retail 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 common parts and stabilise the income before refinancing onto a long-term commercial-investment facility 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 retail vacancy priced in. We packaged the lease re-gear plan as part of the exit story. Seven months in, the retail tenant signed a new 10-year lease at a 21% higher rent, and the common parts refurbishment had stabilised the residential income.

A Dorset landlord owned a Southbourne three-bed semi on an existing first-charge BTL mortgage at a low LTV, leaving meaningful equity unused. He found a refurbishment opportunity in BH10 that needed a 30% deposit and a £40,000 works budget immediately. He did not want to sell the Southbourne property, did not want to disturb the favourable first-charge BTL rate, and did not want to wait 8 weeks for a term capital raise.

We arranged a 9-month second-charge bridge behind the existing first-charge mortgage at a blended 60% LTV, releasing £175,000 cash to the borrower's solicitor for the onward purchase and works. The lender ran the second-charge product specifically for landlords in this position. The first-charge mortgage was untouched. Funds completed in 17 working days.