Semi-Commercial Bridging Loan

Semi-commercial bridging loan: £1.46m secured in 4 working days

Our client was buying a 7,821 sq ft site combining 16 residential apartments, a commercial unit, and garages, all on a single title, with planning permission already in place for 10 further flats. A mixed-use asset like this needed a lender comfortable funding commercial property alongside residential income, not a standard buy to let product.

We secured a £1.46m serviced bridging loan against a £2.25m purchase, with full credit approval and a re-typed valuation turned around in 48 hours, and completion following in just 4 working days.

The scenario

The property comprised 16 residential apartments (9 two-bed, 7 one-bed) alongside a commercial unit and garages, sitting on a 7,821 sq ft site with planning permission already in place for 10 additional flats. With residential and commercial elements combined on a single title, the case sat outside standard residential and buy to let lending from the outset.

The challenges

1. Mixed-use security. Residential and commercial elements on one title meant the case needed a lender genuinely set up to underwrite semi-commercial property, not a standard buy to let product stretched to fit.
2. Tight completion timescale. The transaction needed to move at bridging speed, with full credit approval and valuation both required inside days, not the weeks a mixed-use case might typically take.
3. Additional underwriting considerations. A commercial element on the title brings extra underwriting considerations beyond a standard residential case, which can slow down cases that aren’t structured around it from the start.
4. Unimplemented planning permission. The site carried planning permission for 10 additional flats, adding development upside that needed factoring into how the asset and the lending against it was assessed.

The solution

We identified commercial mortgage finance structured for exactly this kind of mixed-use asset: a £1,460,000 loan against the £2,250,000 purchase price, arranged on a serviced interest basis with Roma Finance. That structure suited an asset carrying both rental income from the residential and commercial elements, and development upside from the unimplemented planning permission.

Full credit approval, together with a re-typed valuation, was secured within 48 hours, pace that mixed-use and part-commercial cases don’t always achieve, given the additional underwriting considerations a commercial element brings. Rather than wait on standard searches, local indemnity insurance and full title insurance were used to protect the lender’s position, letting the legal process move at the speed the case demanded. It’s the kind of structuring that makes a commercial buy to let mortgage or bridge viable within a genuinely tight window.

The outcome

Completion followed in just 4 working days from offer, a timescale that reflects how the case was structured from the start, rather than a rushed exception.

Frequently asked questions