Short-term property finance, typically 1 to 24 months, for when the opportunity will not wait for a term lender. Secured on investment property, business premises or land, with interest rolled up, retained or serviced to suit your cash flow, and a clear exit agreed before you draw a penny. Independent and tied to no lender. We search more than 200 lenders through specialist sourcing platforms.
Most bridging in Scotland is one of five jobs. Each has its own page.
A Scottish auction lot is usually paid for within weeks of the hammer falling, which no term lender can match. Our page on auction finance in Scotland covers getting an indicative view before you bid, the legal pack and what happens if the valuation comes in under the hammer price. Already have a lot in mind? Get bid-ready: send it to us before the auction and within one working day you will know whether it looks fundable and how much cash you need.
A flat with no working kitchen, damp in the close or a roof that needs doing will not take a buy to let loan until the work is done. Refurbishment bridging funds the purchase, and sometimes the works, until it will; structural or change-of-use projects are usually better priced as development finance.
Buy with a bridge, do the work, let it, then refinance onto a buy to let loan that repays the bridge and returns some of your cash. Bridge to let finance explains the refinance tests, and the bridge to let calculator runs the whole sequence on your numbers.
A few specialist lenders size the bridge on what the property is worth rather than the discounted price you agreed. Our below market value bridging guide shows how much that can cut the deposit, and the BMV bridging calculator tests it on your figures.
When a scheme is finished or nearly finished, a bridge can repay the development lender and give you time to sell or let the units. Development exit finance covers what lenders need to see at practical completion and how it can release equity for the next site.
| Cost | Indicative range |
|---|---|
| Monthly interest | About 0.55% to 1.2% a month, depending on loan to value, property and exit |
| Arrangement fee | Usually 1% to 2% of the loan, often added to the loan |
| Valuation | Paid up front; from a few hundred pounds on a flat to several thousand on larger or commercial property |
| Legal fees | You pay your own solicitor and the lender’s, as the borrower does on most loans |
| Exit fee | Often none; some lenders charge around 1% of the loan |
Indicative only. Property given as security may be repossessed if the loan is not repaid, and most lenders ask directors for personal guarantees.
Cost the bridge on the bridging loan calculator, which shows rolled-up and serviced interest side by side with the fees, and check the tax on the LBTT and ADS calculator before you offer.
A bridging loan is only as good as its exit: a sale, a refinance onto a term loan, or works finished and then a refinance at the improved value. We test the exit before we place the loan, because an extended bridge is an expensive place to live.
Plenty of bridging lenders do not lend north of the border at all, and some that do avoid the islands or cap loan-to-value outside the central belt. Our guide to how property finance works in Scotland goes through the sequence step by step.
Bridging for investment property and business purposes only. If you or a family member will live in the property, it is not something we arrange. Tell us at the start and we will tell you straight away.
Yes. Scotland has a working bridging market, but it is narrower than England's: many UK bridging lenders do not lend north of the border at all, and some of those that do lend only in the central belt or cap loan-to-value outside it. Choosing a lender that genuinely completes in Scotland, on your postcode, is the job. We arrange unregulated bridging only: investment property, business premises, land and company borrowers. Bridging on a home you or your family will live in is not something we arrange.
Two to three weeks is realistic in Scotland. Faster is possible on simple cases. Both depend on a responsive solicitor and a clean title.
Not if interest is rolled up or retained. Many borrowers prefer this so the project is not draining cash during works.
Extensions and re-bridges exist but cost money. We build headroom into the term from day one.
Property value, loan amount, exit plan, one line on the situation. One working day to fundable-or-not, rough cost and timescale.