Commercial Bridging Finance

Short-term finance secured on commercial and semi-commercial property — placed across 135+ lenders and quoted against your actual case.

Commercial bridging finance is short-term lending secured against commercial property — used to buy, refinance or refurbish an asset while a longer-term plan completes. Propertyze arranges commercial bridging across 135+ lenders, structuring each facility around the asset and the exit.

Commercial bridging at a glance

Loan size: typically from £25,000 up to £50 million and beyond.
Leverage: most lenders advance around 70% to 75% of the property value; some go a little further where the deal is well structured.
Speed: funds can be released in as little as five to ten working days, with four to five weeks the more typical timetable at standard pricing.
Security: almost any non-residential asset — warehouses, shops, offices, care homes and more.
Underwriting: many lenders weigh the asset and the exit more heavily than the borrower’s credit file.

How commercial bridging finance works

A commercial bridging loan raises capital quickly — typically to fund the purchase or refinance of a commercial asset, and often refurbishment as well. It bridges the gap between where you are now and what you want to achieve: you might refurbish a property to lift its value and rental income, reposition it for a new use, or prepare it for sale. The bridge funds that work in the meantime, and is repaid through a defined exit — usually a sale or a refinance onto term lending.

Who commercial bridging is for

We arrange commercial bridging for property investors, business owners, developers and landlords. The common thread is a commercial building — a warehouse, shop, office or care home, anything that is not residential — and a plan that needs funding faster than term finance allows.

If you already own the asset, bridging can fund refurbishment, refitting, a change of use or a planning application. It suits commercial flips — buy, renovate, sell — and it can also release equity from a property you hold to provide capital for your business.

What commercial bridging costs

The figures to plan for:

Arrangement fee: typically 2%, paid to the lender and built into the loan facility — it does not come out of your own cash flow.
Valuation fees: paid directly to the valuer, and potentially a couple of thousand pounds depending on the size of the asset.
Legal costs: you cover both your own and the lender’s. A standard transaction runs to around £1,000 each; a very large property, or one with multiple units and leases, costs more.

Monthly interest moves with your credit record, the exit, how much you are borrowing and the strength of the asset itself. As a guide, the strongest commercial bridging cases are typically priced from around 0.7% per month; rates move with the market, so treat this as indicative. At the other end — a niche commercial property in an area that is hard to sell, with poor credit behind it — pricing of 1.2% to 1.3% a month is possible, though we rarely see cases priced that high.

The application process

The work starts before any application is made. We assess the asset and the borrower together — the strengths and weaknesses of the case, the full shape of the deal and the exit strategy. Presenting that correctly to a lender materially improves the efficiency of the underwriting, the ease with which the case goes through, and the experience for the client.

The starting documents are straightforward: an application form, a passport for identification, proof of address, details of the property, your credit report and the detail of your exit strategy.

Frequently asked questions

How much can I borrow?

Commercial bridging lenders typically offer from £25,000 up to £50 million plus, and most cases fall comfortably within that range. Most lenders go to around 70% to 75% of the property value, with a little more available from some lenders depending on how the deal is structured. Expect leverage to tighten where the deal carries more risk — poor credit, a property in an area deemed hard to sell, a sale as the exit, or an unusual asset.

How quickly can a commercial bridging loan complete?

Funds can be released in as little as five to ten working days, with the timetable driven by how quickly the valuation, legals and other paperwork can be turned around. Speed has a price: a lender completing in five to ten working days will charge more on the rate. Allow four to five weeks — the more typical timetable — and you can expect normal pricing.

Can I get commercial bridging finance with bad credit?

Yes. Many commercial bridging lenders are more focused on the asset and the exit of the loan facility than on your credit history. Credit does play a part where the exit is a refinance: a term lender may offer less, or price higher, to a borrower with adverse credit, which can leave the bridging lender with concerns over how it will be repaid. The answer is to understand the credit position and the exit at the outset — in most cases the effect is a slightly higher rate, nothing more.

Do I need an exit strategy?

Yes — and while a lender may accept “sale” or “refinance” without much detail, we do not. If sale is the exit, we seek confirmation from valuers of the likely sale value. If you intend to retain the property and refinance to repay the bridge, we establish what term lenders will offer and at what rate. Where possible we secure credit terms in advance, so you know with certainty that the bridging loan can be repaid.

Listen to the episode

Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other debt secured on it. Most bridging loans on investment property are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

To put numbers to your own scenario, use our bridging loan calculator — it estimates interest, fees, net advance and LTV.

Bridging loans · Commercial mortgages · Semi-commercial mortgages · Second-charge bridging · Case study: commercial refinance under pressure

Full transcript — “Commercial Bridging Finance”

Recorded October 2025. A conversation with Scott West of Propertyze, transcribed in full. 8 minutes · approximately 1,574 words.

Read the transcript

Hello, and this time on the Bridging Finance podcast, we are discussing commercial bridging finance with Scott from Propertyze. Welcome back, Scott. Thank you for joining us. How are you doing? Very well, thank you. Very well. This should be a good one. Yes, definitely. Okay, well, let's get straight into the question. So we'll start here, of course. What is commercial bridging finance and how does it all work? So commercial bridging finance is a short term loan. Typically, it's used for the purchase or refinance of an asset. You can use it for refurbishment as well. So it allows you to raise capital quickly and the term bridging obviously, it bridges the gap between what you want to achieve now and where you want to end up. So typically, let's say refurbishment's

a key one. If you want to refurb a property, increase the value of it, the rental income of it, and offload it or keep it to do those works in the meantime. Right, okay. So that explains that there in a nutshell. Hopefully, that makes sense. Now, the next question leads on really, you've touched on part of this, but who is commercial bridging finance for and what can I use this for? So anything else to add here? Who's it for? It can be used by anybody really. Typically, we see property investors, business owners, developers, landlords, people in real estate effectively. It can be used for as I've already alluded to the purchase of a commercial building, so warehouse, shop, office, car homes, anything that's not residential. If you already own it, you can use it to fund

a refurbishment, refitting, change of use, planning commissionals, all sorts of stuff. You can use it for that. If you're looking to flip a property, so looking to buy, renovate and sell, bridging finance is suitable for that. Raising business, raising capital for your business use. So if you're already owning the asset and there's equity to use, and you need capital for your current business running from the property, you can use it for that. So lots of different options. Yes, definitely. Lots there, lots of reasons as to why you might be using commercial bridging finance. So this next question, it's always a popular one, isn't it? But in this case, how much can I borrow? Some lenders typically offer, I mean, the smallest lenders, probably 25,000 and up to

50 million plus. So most people forward in that range. Depends on the asset, depends on the borrower profile, background, what the asset is. Most lenders will lend you 70 to 75% as a maximum for property value. You can get a little bit more with some lenders, depending on how the deal is structured. But that may reduce if the deal is high risk. So if there's poor credit involved, if the property is in an area that's deemed to be hard to sell in, if the seller is the exit, or if the asset is unusual, again, you can find a slight reduction in loan's value. Right. OK, so that explains that there when it comes to borrowing. Now, how long does it take to get a commercial bridging loan? Is this fast finance?

So speed is a huge advantage here compared to a long term or term finance. So funds can be released in as little as five to 10 working days. Those are the quickest kind of times you can get it done. Really depends on how quickly the valuation is coming down, legal work, paperwork. So and also it's a key point here is you get what you pay for. If you want a lender that's going to turn this around in five to 10 working days, you've got to pay a little bit more on the rates for that. If you want to get it done within four to five weeks, which is what I would typically expect, then we'd expect number of rates. So it can be done as quickly as that. I tend to say to people, think on four or five weeks as being your main target.

Right, OK, so that gives you an idea there of the time frame or time frames involved. Let's move on now to this question. So people would like to know, what if I have bad credit? Can I still get commercial bridge finance? Yes, you can. Many commercial bridge lenders are more focused on the asset and the exit of that loan facility than your credit history. It does play a part because of the exit strategy is refinance, for example. And you have poor credit. The commercial term lender that we're looking to use afterwards might not give you as much lending or the lenders we use might be less favorable with higher rates, which means your borrowing is reduced, which means that the bridging lender has more concern over how they're going to be repaid.

Yes, we can get your bridging loan. It's just understanding how bad the credit is and what the exit strategy actually is. It might push up the rates slightly. That's all. Right, OK, so that's something to be aware of if you're listening to this and that might apply to you in any way. And speaking of exit strategy, do I need an exit strategy? What is this? We cover this, don't we, on a lot of our bridging episodes? Yeah, we do. It's one that comes up fairly often. Yes, you need an exit strategy. The lender might not necessarily ask for any details of it. You might just say, sale or refinance and the bank will be happy with that answer. Working with us, we're very keen to make sure there's an actual strategy in place.

So having confirmation from valuers if sale is the exit, what the sale value will be, presumably you're refurbing it. If it's to retain the property, to refinance it out, again, to understand what lenders are offering it, what the rates will be, what the loan sizes will be. And sometimes we even get credit back terms in advance so that you know for certain that the bridging loan can be repaid by an exit. So we're really hot on making sure there's definitely one in place. Right. OK, so that really is key there. Now we have two questions left for this episode. So moving on, what are the costs are involved with commercial bridge finance? So the set up costs, you're looking at a probably a 2% arrangement fee paid to the lender,

which is built into the loan facility, so it doesn't cost you out of your own cash flow, but it's built into the loan. Valuation fees will be paid directly to the valuer. So that could be a couple of thousand pounds, you know, depending on the size of the asset. Legal costs, you pay for both yours and the lender's when it comes to bridging loans. For a usual transaction, I'd say a thousand pounds for yours, a thousand pounds for lenders. If it's a very large property or a property with lots of units and lots of leases in place, like a big commercial unit, it could be higher than that. One thing to bear in mind is the monthly interest rate can fluctuate depending on, as I've kind of mentioned, what the credit's like,

what the exit's like, how much you're borrowing the strength of the asset itself. So I would say the best case you're going to be looking at maybe 0.7% per month. Worst case, if you're doing a very niche commercial property in a set area that's not very saleable with poor credit, you could be looking as much as 1.2%, 1.3% amount. Right. I mean, you very rarely see them that high, but it can get as high as that with some of those boxes ticked. Right. OK, so there we go. There's the breakdown then when it comes to the costs involved. But it also sounds like there's lots of factors as well around all of those costs that's involved there. Just lastly, then, how does the application process work here?

How can a broker help here? Have you got anything else you'd like to add? Yeah, so the process really starts with assessing the asset and the client, understanding all the strengths and weaknesses of the case. I say that time and time again in all these podcasts, presentation is the key point. Understanding everything to do with the entire deal, planning the exit strategy and presenting this correctly to a lender will dramatically improve the efficiency of that underwriting, the ease of the case going through and the reduced headaches for clients and for us. But the usual things we're going to need, application form, ID, so usually a passport, proof of address, usually a driving licence, details of the property,

credit report, experience or check my file or something usually, and understanding of the exit strategy. Those are the real starting points. OK, there we go. So a good note to end on there. Thank you ever so much for that, Scott. Hopefully that has proved useful to anyone listening to this and I'm sure we'll catch you on another episode soon. Perfect. I look forward to it. Please note, Sunbridgeing Finance is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

This is a transcript of a spoken conversation recorded in October 2025, published as recorded and lightly corrected for names and technical terms only. It is general information about how this type of lending works, not advice on your circumstances. Any rates, fees, loan-to-values or criteria mentioned reflect the market as it stood when this was recorded and are not current pricing and not an offer of finance — for today’s figures, speak to an adviser.

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