Bridging Loan Case Studies Wiltshire

The borrower picked up a vacant three-bed Victorian terrace at the Salisbury regional auction with a 28-day completion deadline. The property was tenantable but tired: dated kitchen, single-pane windows, dated boiler, and a 1990s side extension with a missing building regs sign-off. 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 to bridge the building regs gap. Completion landed 13 working days after the hammer fell, with 15 days of the auction clock still on it.

A Wiltshire-based landlord bought a stone-built end-terrace at the regional auction with a tenant in situ on a periodic AST and a clear rising-damp signal in the legal pack. The auction house had flagged the damp in the special conditions. Standard BTL lenders would not lend until works completed; the borrower needed a bridge to acquire and remediate.

We pitched the case to MT Finance and Roma Finance the morning after the hammer fall. Both came back inside 24 hours with indicative terms. MT Finance accepted the tenant-in-situ position with a soft AST review and priced at 72% LTV. Valuation landed at day 5, legals ran in parallel, and completion landed at day 12 from offer with title insurance covering a minor freeholder consent gap.

A portfolio landlord targeted a Westbury mid-terrace at the lower end of the BA13 band as a yield-led BTL pickup. The auction lot sold at £145,000, around 12% below the post-works comparable. Works were cosmetic only: redecoration, kitchen and bathroom refresh, new flooring. The borrower wanted speed and a clean exit to BTL once tenanted.

We pitched two lenders the morning after the auction. LendInvest priced at 0.95% per month on a clean 70% LTV against open-market value with a six-month term. The case completed inside 11 working days using a streamlined valuation and title insurance. Works ran for 5 weeks at a £9,500 budget. The property let inside 3 weeks of completion at £825 pcm.

A first-time investor bought a tired three-bed Victorian terrace in SN15 near the railway with the intent to refurbish to a BTL standard and refinance onto a 5-year fixed BTL mortgage. The property was unmortgageable at purchase: damp at the rear, 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 with Roma Finance at 72% LTV against the open-market value as-is, with the works budget on top released in two tranches. The refurb ran 13 weeks at a £29,000 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 £315,000.

An experienced family bought a four-bed stone-built period house in Marlborough on the Kennet that needed substantial structural refurbishment. The property required listed-building consent for a partial internal alteration, full thermal upgrade to bring an EPC E rating up to C, and fabric works to the stone elevations. The works package ran to £140,000 over 9 months. Standard owner-occupier lenders would not lend on the property in its current condition.

We packaged the case to United Trust Bank as a heavy refurbishment bridge at 65% LTV with the works budget released in four stage payments tied to QS sign-off. Listed-building consent came through at month 2. The works ran from month 2 to month 10. The owner-occupier term mortgage was lined up 60 days before term end against the post-works valuation.

A retired couple in their late 60s wanted to complete on a smaller stone-built cottage in Bradford-on-Avon before their larger existing home in Devizes finished going through the sale process. The buyers on the existing home were in chain themselves with 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 partners who carried out the regulated activity. Hope Capital quoted indicative terms inside 24 hours at the regulated rate band. Funds completed in 14 working days against the existing Devizes home as security, and the onward Bradford-on-Avon purchase exchanged on time.

A working family in their 40s with two school-age children needed to complete on a period stone-built family home in Malmesbury (SN16) for the new school year. Their existing home in Royal Wootton Bassett (SN4) was on the market and had two interested parties but neither had made a firm offer. The Malmesbury property had a four-week exchange deadline and the seller would not extend.

Regulated case introduced to our FCA-authorised partner. The lender priced at 0.70% per month, 68% LTV against the existing Royal Wootton Bassett home. Drawdown landed 13 working days from first call. The family completed on the Malmesbury onward purchase, moved in over the summer, and continued marketing the Royal Wootton Bassett home with the bridge sitting behind.

A regional developer reached practical completion on an eight-apartment scheme in Amesbury, SP4, off the A303. The development facility ran at expensive dev rates and was 30 days from expiry. Three of the eight units had buyers under offer subject to contract; the other five were on the market with no offers yet. The location's garrison-let demand from Larkhill, Bulford and the wider Salisbury Plain garrisons supported a partial BTL retention strategy.

We refinanced the developer off the dev facility onto a development-exit bridge with Octopus Real Estate at materially lower monthly cost. The case priced at 65% LTV against the gross development value, term 12 months, with the lender accepting individual unit sales as the redemption mechanism. Packaging covered the build cost reconciliation, the marketing strategy, and individual unit valuations against comparable Amesbury and Larkhill evidence.

A local investor identified a Warminster mixed-use building on the high street: ground-floor retail unit with two one-bed flats over. The commercial tenant's lease was 5 months from expiry and the seller was motivated. The investor wanted breathing room to re-gear the lease at a market rent, refurbish the common parts and stabilise the income before refinancing onto a long-term term-loan facility against the commercial security at a much better valuation.

We arranged a 12-month bridge with Octane Capital against the building at 65% LTV. The lender took comfort from the residential income covering interest on a serviced basis, with the commercial vacancy priced in. We packaged the lease re-gear plan as part of the exit story. Seven months in, the commercial tenant signed a new 10-year lease at an 18% higher rent.

An established Salisbury homeowner in SP2 needed to raise capital quickly to fund the purchase of a smaller second property nearby for an adult family member. The existing first-charge mortgage with a high-street lender had four years left on a fixed rate; the lender would release further equity but not on the eight-week timeline the family needed. Selling the family home was not on the table.

We arranged a 9-month second-charge bridge sitting behind the existing first charge at 65% combined LTV. The lender accepted the existing first-charge position and took comfort from the borrower's income covering interest service. Funds drew down in 16 working days and the related property purchase completed inside the seller's timeline.