Heavy refurbishment bridging loans

There is no single industry definition, so each lender draws its own line, but the usual test is whether the work is structural or changes what the building is. Knocking through walls, extensions, loft or basement conversions, a change of use from commercial to residential, splitting a house into flats, or anything that needs planning permission or building regulations sign-off is heavy. Redecoration, a new kitchen and bathroom, rewiring and replacement windows are light. Some lenders also treat works costing more than a set share of the property's value as heavy whatever they involve, so send the schedule of works and let the lender categorise it.

Two ways. Some lenders lend against the current value on day one and leave you to fund the works from your own money, which is the simpler product. Others fund the works in stages: a monitoring surveyor visits, confirms the work claimed has been done, and the lender releases the next tranche. Staged funding lets you borrow more of the total but adds a surveyor fee to each drawdown and a few days each time.

Across the bridging products on our panel at 70 percent loan-to-value the monthly rate runs from 0.6% to 2%, typically around 0.9%; arrangement fees run from 1% to 4%, typically 2% (checked September 2026). Heavy refurbishment sits towards the upper part of those spans because the lender is taking construction risk as well as property risk. Add the monitoring surveyor, the valuation, the legal fees and, with some lenders, an exit fee. Those are spans across products, not an offer.

The panel's maximum loan-to-value on bridging is typically around 70%, with the range from 50% to 92% on individual products (checked September 2026). On a heavy refurbishment the lender is also looking at the value when the works are finished: a loan sized on the current value plus staged works funding can end up as a smaller percentage of the end value, which is what makes the exit onto a term mortgage work. 23 lenders on our panel will lend on value rather than price where you are buying below market.

If the building stays standing and the work is a conversion, extension or structural refit, it is refurbishment and 35 bridging lenders on our panel will look at it. If you are demolishing, building from the ground up or the works cost more than the property is worth, it is development finance, a field of 51 lenders with a slower, staged process and a heavier appraisal. A first project is usually easier to fund as a refurbishment.

Long enough for the works, the sale or the refinance, and a margin for the things that go wrong. Terms on our panel run from one to 24 months. A twelve-month term on a six-month programme is not extravagant: a refinance onto a buy-to-let or commercial mortgage needs a valuation of the finished property and a lender's full process, and an extension or re-bridge at the end costs a fresh fee.

Bridging to a limited company or LLP on a property nobody in the borrower's family will live in is generally unregulated. A bridge secured on your own home, or on a property a relative will occupy, is a regulated mortgage contract, which we do not arrange. CapExpand Ltd (FRN 1060885) is an Appointed Representative of White Rose Finance Group Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630772). For property-secured lending we work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.