Property type: Office
Office Property Bridging Loans Wiltshire
We arrange bridging finance against office property across Wiltshire, from the Dyson research-and-development campus at Malmesbury through the Renishaw operations at Royal Wootton Bassett, the MoD garrison administrative offices around Salisbury Plain, the Salisbury legal-and-professional cluster on Castle Street and Crane Street, the Chippenham business park, and the office buildings at Solstice Park Amesbury. Loan sizes run £200,000 to £15 million, terms from 1 to 24 months, with completions in 7 to 21 days. Most office bridges price between 0.75% and 1.35% per month depending on covenant, vacancy and the credibility of the exit. The book skews toward repositioning, refurbishment and change-of-use rather than vanilla investment hold.
- Decisions in hours
- Completion in days
- £100k to £25m
- Wiltshire specialists
Wiltshire · Wiltshire
Bridge to your next move.
The asset class
What office property looks like in Wiltshire.
Office stock across Wiltshire ranges from purpose-built R&D and corporate-HQ campuses through to secondary 1970s and 1980s blocks in the larger town centres, through to converted Georgian and Victorian professional offices on Castle Street and Crane Street in Salisbury and on the high streets of Marlborough, Devizes and Bradford-on-Avon. The market is bifurcated. Well-located, well-specced floors at Solstice Park Amesbury, the Chippenham business park and the Dyson supplier shed cluster let well to defence, technology and engineering occupiers. Secondary blocks in central Swindon, Trowbridge and Chippenham have struggled with hybrid working and many are candidates for residential or hotel conversion under permitted development or full planning. Each of those positions reads differently to a bridging lender and the underwriting follows.
Use cases
Bridging use cases for office assets.
Office bridging across Wiltshire clusters around six use cases. The first is repositioning of secondary stock, where a buyer takes a half-empty 1970s block, refurbishes the common parts and the floors, and re-lets at a higher tone. The second is change-of-use to residential under permitted development, which has driven a large share of the office bridging book in Swindon, Trowbridge and Chippenham for the last seven years. The third is purchase of single-let investments with short unexpired terms, where the buyer expects either a re-gear or a vacant possession play. The fourth is development-exit where an office-to-resi conversion has reached practical completion and the units are marketing; bridging refinances the development facility while the sales close out. The fifth is capital raise against a low-LTV owner-occupied office, often by a professional services firm in Salisbury wanting to fund the next deposit or works elsewhere. The sixth is auction purchase of small office buildings, typically below £1 million, where the 28-day clock and the vacant possession risk push the deal into bridging rather than term debt.
Wiltshire context
The Wiltshire Office Market: Dyson, Renishaw, MoD and Salisbury Professional Services
Wiltshire office demand sits on top of an economy that is materially different from the rest of the South West. The Dyson research-and-development campus at Malmesbury is the largest single corporate office presence in the county, anchoring an engineering supplier ecosystem that ripples out across Royal Wootton Bassett, Chippenham and into Swindon. Renishaw, the metrology and additive-manufacturing group headquartered at Wotton-under-Edge just over the Gloucestershire line, operates significant Wiltshire facilities at Royal Wootton Bassett, supporting the precision-engineering office cluster. The Ministry of Defence runs a substantial administrative office footprint across the Salisbury Plain garrisons at Tidworth, Larkhill and Bulford, with garrison support offices supporting the largest training-area estate in the UK Army order of battle. The Salisbury professional-services cluster around Castle Street and Crane Street holds a dense run of law firms, accountancy practices, surveyors and consultancies serving the cathedral-city catchment and the wider Wiltshire-Dorset border. The Chippenham business park, plus the office buildings at Solstice Park Amesbury, complete the office-market picture. For a bridging case, the relevant point is that Wiltshire office demand is driven by engineering R&D, defence administration, professional services and logistics-headquarters use, rather than by the speculative tech-and-creative demand that drives Bristol or Reading. Lenders who understand this price the asset correctly. Lenders who do not, price as if it were any other secondary South West office market, and miss the deal.
Valuation and lenders
Valuation and lender considerations.
Office valuations come back on yield-and-rent for income-producing assets, vacant possession for empty floors, and residual or GDV for conversion plays. Bridging lenders generally lend on the lower of the relevant figures. LTV caps sit at 60% to 65% on vacant secondary office, 65% to 70% on tenanted investments with a recognisable covenant, and 60% to 65% on as-is value where the case is a conversion play with day-one drawdown plus a refurbishment tranche. MT Finance, Octane Capital, United Trust Bank, Hope Capital and Together all run office bridging, with Avamore Capital, ASK Partners, OakNorth and Shawbrook stronger at the larger end. Lenders care about planning position, covenant strength and the realism of the exit. Vague exits kill office cases harder than any other asset class.
What we arrange
What we typically arrange.
A typical Wiltshire office bridge sits at £400,000 to £4 million, 60% to 70% LTV, 9 to 15 months term, 0.75% to 1.25% per month, arrangement fee 1.5% to 2%. We package the planning position, the covenant evidence and the exit plan up front so the lender sees the case the way the underwriter needs to see it. Conversion cases include a monitored works tranche; investment-purchase cases focus on the lease and the refinance route. Completion in 14 to 21 days is normal where the title and planning are clean. Where there is a contested planning position, the underwriting takes longer and the rate moves up.
FAQs
Office bridging questions
Can we bridge an office to residential conversion in Wiltshire?
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Yes. Office-to-residential conversions under Class MA permitted development and under full planning have been a steady part of the Wiltshire bridging book for several years, particularly across Swindon, Trowbridge and Chippenham town centres. We arrange the day-one purchase tranche against the as-is office value, a works tranche released against monitoring sign-off, and exit to BTL refinance for held units or open-market sale for disposals. Article 4 directions apply in parts of Salisbury and the older market towns, so we check the planning position before going to lender, and we work with planning consultants who know the Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council positions on these conversions.
What LTV is realistic on a vacant office block?
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Most lenders cap at 60% to 65% LTV against vacant possession value on a secondary office. Where the buyer has a credible repositioning plan, a strong track record, and a realistic refinance exit on a refurbished and re-let basis, 65% is achievable. Day-one LTV against purchase price can sit higher where the property is materially below market value, with the gap closed by an independent valuation. The exit drives the LTV more than the entry, so a clear refinance route opens the door to better terms.
Do bridging lenders take office cases backed by defence-sector or engineering tenants?
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Yes. The bridging lenders on our panel are comfortable with the Wiltshire occupier profile. Defence prime contractors and tier-one suppliers, the Dyson and Renishaw supplier base, engineering consultancies serving the MoD garrisons, and the Salisbury professional-services tenant base are all recognised covenants. Lenders price for unexpired lease term, break clauses and any government-contract dependency, with the strongest cases sitting at 65% to 70% LTV and the lower end at 60%. The presence of the Salisbury Plain garrison estate and the supporting supply chain is generally seen as a stabilising factor for office demand in the county.
Tell us about the deal
Indicative terms within 24 hours.
A short triage call, then a sized indicative offer against a named lender for your office property in Wiltshire or across Wiltshire.
Regulated bridging on owner-occupied residential property falls under FCA regulation. Unregulated bridging on commercial and investment property does not. We are not directly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and we introduce regulated cases to authorised partners who carry out the regulated activity.
Next step
Talk to a Wiltshire office bridging specialist.
We arrange short-term finance on office property across Wiltshire, from Salisbury and Swindon out to the west Wiltshire market towns. Indicative terms in 24 hours.