Bridging Loan Case Studies Norwich

The borrower picked up a vacant two-bed terrace at an Auction House East Anglia sale 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 13 working days after the hammer fell, with 15 days of the auction clock still on it.

A Norfolk landlord secured a three-bed Lakenham terrace at auction at £168,000 against an open-market value estimate around £215,000. The property was a probate listing in NR1 with dated electrics, a tired bathroom and a back garden that needed clearing. The legal pack flagged that grant of probate was issued only days before the auction.

We took the legal pack the morning after the sale and pitched the case to MT Finance and LendInvest. Indicative terms returned at 0.90% per month, 72% LTV on the auction value. We instructed a streamlined valuation the same day and pushed the title chain through with both solicitors. Completion landed at day 18 of the 28-day auction clock.

The property was a Heigham Victorian terrace in NR2 that had failed at an earlier auction over building regs issues on a 1990s rear addition. The borrower picked it up at the next sale for £215,000 against a guide of £245,000. The legal pack flagged the building regs note and rising damp on the party wall.

We pitched the case to Roma Finance who took comfort from the borrower's BRR track record and the proposed exit. The bridge funded the purchase at 68% LTV with the works tranche released in two stages against monitoring inspections. Title insurance bridged the building regs gap; works addressed the damp and brought the rear addition under retrospective consent through Norwich City Council.

An experienced landlord bought a four-bed Earlham semi in NR4 for conversion to a five-let HMO targeting the University of East Anglia student catchment. The property sat within the City of Norwich Article 4 designation, which removes permitted-development rights for HMO conversion. Planning consent had been applied for at offer stage but was not granted at purchase. 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 portfolio landlord bought a tenanted three-bed Edwardian semi in Eaton at £285,000. The property was tenanted on a short-hold tenancy with three months to run and was dated through the kitchen, bathroom and shared spaces. The plan was to take possession at tenancy end, refurbish to a higher BTL standard, then refinance against the post-works value.

We pitched the case to Roma Finance and Hope Capital. Hope Capital priced sharper at 0.85% per month with a 70% LTV against the open-market vacant-possession value and an exit to a Precise BTL at month 9. We packaged the case with a vacant-possession-on-completion conditional drawdown of the works tranche; the borrower's solicitor handled the tenancy notice in parallel.

A retired couple in their early 70s wanted to complete on a three-bed bungalow in Thorpe St Andrew before their existing four-bed detached in NR7 finished going through the sale process. The buyers on the existing home had a chain delay further down. The couple stood to lose the bungalow 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 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 bungalow purchase exchanged on time.

A family with two school-age children wanted to upsize from a three-bed semi in Costessey to a four-bed detached on a nearby NR5 street, closer to their secondary school catchment. The vendor on the onward purchase wanted exchange in 21 days. Their existing home was on the market with an offer accepted but not exchanged.

We introduced them to our FCA-authorised regulated partner who priced the bridge at 0.70% per month against the existing home as security. The bridge funded the onward purchase deposit and balance at 65% LTV of the existing-home value. Funds completed 13 working days from initial enquiry. The family exchanged on the new home with five days to spare.

A regional developer reached practical completion on a nine-unit apartment scheme along the Riverside corridor in NR1, close to St James Quay. The development facility ran at expensive dev rates and was 30 days from expiry. Four of the nine units had buyers under offer subject to contract but had not exchanged. The remaining five were on the market with no offers yet.

We refinanced the developer off the dev facility onto a development-exit bridge at materially lower monthly cost. The case priced at 65% LTV against the gross development value, term 9 months, with the lender accepting individual unit sales as the redemption mechanism. The packaging covered the build cost reconciliation, the marketing strategy, and individual unit valuations against comparable evidence in the postcode area.

A landlord secured a mixed-use property in the Norwich city centre running between London Street and the wider Castle Mall retail catchment. The deal was a ground-floor retail unit with a two-bed flat above. The commercial element was vacant at acquisition but a national retailer had agreed heads of terms for a 10-year lease at a higher rent than the previous tenant.

We arranged a 12-month bridge against the building at 65% LTV. The lender took comfort from the upper flat residential income covering interest on a serviced basis and the heads-of-terms agreement on the commercial element. We packaged the lease completion plan as part of the exit story. The new tenant signed and fitted out by month 5; the commercial term refinance lined up at month 9.

A landlord owned an Eaton five-bed Edwardian family home worth around £750,000, with a £225,000 first-charge owner-occupier mortgage. He found a refurbishment opportunity in NR6 that needed a 35% deposit and a works budget. He did not want to disturb the favourable existing residential mortgage and did not want to wait 8 weeks for a term refinance.

We arranged a 9-month second-charge bridge against the Eaton property at 1.05% per month, releasing £245,000 cash to the borrower's solicitor for the onward purchase and works. Combined LTV across first and second charges sat at 63% against open-market value. The first-charge lender consented to the second charge with a deed of priority. The lender was comfortable because the Eaton property was clean, the borrower had a long mortgage payment history, and the exit was a term refinance back onto a BTL product once the NR6 refurbishment was complete.