Castle Trust Bank review 2026, bridging, refurbishment and TermTen buy-to-let from £200,000

What Castle Trust lends

The bridging guide last updated on 2 September 2026 lists nine lines. Light refurbishment covers work under permitted development or needing building regulation sign-off, a house becoming an HMO of up to 6 tenants, new windows, decoration, heating, a full rewire, internal reconfiguration and new bathrooms or kitchens, with works costs up to £250,000 and up to 80% LTV net over 6 to 12 months. Heavy refurbishment is for the larger HMOs and multi-unit conversions that need planning, which must be in place on day one, with works up to £750,000, up to 80% net and a term of 9 to 18 months.

Both refurbishment products come in a drawdown form. Drawdowns fund 100% of the works in arrears in tranches of £25,000 or more at up to 75% net, and the light version runs 6 to 12 months against 12 to 18 for heavy. An EPC uplift line, from £200,000 to £1m over 3 to 12 months, funds non-structural work that takes a home to an A to C rating by the end of the loan, with works up to £100,000. A further light refurbishment line takes loans of £150,000 to £200,000 where the gross development value reaches £200,000.

Three sale exit products are built for borrowers who need time to sell. Standard bridge sale exit refinances a completed scheme where no more than half the units, up to 5, remain unsold, over 12 months at up to 75% gross. Light refurbishment sale exit, with or without drawdowns, runs 15 months on single houses worth up to £1m and flats worth up to £600,000. Interest is rolled up across the range, and every line reads loan to gross development value of 70% or 75%.

TermTen is the buy-to-let mortgage. The guide of 7 September 2026 puts it on standard homes, small and large HMOs, multi-unit blocks under £5m and holiday lets worth up to £1m, over a 10-year term with the first 5 years fixed and interest-only payments. Blocks of flats are valued on an aggregated basis up to 10 units, holiday lets are assessed on holiday let income, and an automated valuation may be used on a standard house or single flat for loans up to 65% LTV and £750,000.

Who Castle Trust lends to

Portfolio landlords, buy-to-let investors, first-time landlords, complex structures, limited companies and individuals, ex-pats and foreign nationals are the borrower types both guides name. The criteria document of 26 February 2026 adds the detail: a UK resident first-time landlord can also be a first-time buyer, an ex-pat needs to own a UK property, a foreign national needs proven UK mortgage conduct, and a corporate borrower gives personal guarantees from every shareholder holding more than 25%. Applicants are 21 or over and no more than 85 at the end of the term.

There is no stated minimum income, but each application shows demonstrable income and a repayment strategy, and deposits can come from savings, a family gift, a director's loan or the refinance of another asset. On TermTen the rental cover test is 125% of the pay rate for a basic rate taxpayer or a limited company and 145% for a higher rate taxpayer or an HMO. A tenancy is an assured shorthold of 6 to 12 months, a company let is fine where the tenant is a named person, and holiday lets, serviced apartments and Airbnb are accepted.

Security sits in England and Wales, is worth at least £75,000, and is of standard construction with a minimum floor space of 35 square metres a unit and at least 60 years unexpired on a lease at maturity. Commercial property qualifies once residential planning is in place. An ex-local authority home needs 50% or more private ownership in its block or area. The footer states that Castle Trust Capital plc holds Financial Services Register number 541910, which can be read at register.fca.org.uk, and that buy-to-let is not regulated by the FCA or the PRA. Property-secured lending through us is for UK limited companies and LLPs.

How an application runs

Every Castle Trust property loan comes through an authorised intermediary; the customer page says so in terms and points a borrower to their adviser. Brokers submit through PULSE, the bank's own application system, and a BDM team covers the country. The bridging guide's checklist asks for identification and proof of residency for each borrower, a schedule of works with estimates or quotes, and the refurbishment form, all of which the customer downloads page also carries.

Two features the guides highlight are aimed at speed on the legal side. Title insurance is used to move a transaction along, and below market value purchases are accepted on the refurbishment lines. The case studies on the intermediaries page describe a multi-unit refinance completed within 14 days of enquiry, a £4.8m development loan refinanced onto a buy-to-let term facility for a 51-unit block in Dover, and a TermTen loan of more than £1m across two sites and ten units.

With us the security, the works and the exit go to Castle Trust and to the rest of the panel in one package, put together by a named case handler. We arrange the finance; the bank underwrites and decides. Enquiring does not affect your credit score.

Castle Trust on our panel

At September 2026 the 12 live Castle Trust products in our catalogue split into 6 bridging loans sized £200,000 at the low end and £5m at the top, on terms of 1 month at the low end and 18 months at the top, 5 buy-to-let mortgages sized £200,000 at the low end and £5m at the top, and 1 development finance product sized £250,000 at the low end and £5m at the top over 12 months at the low end and 18 months at the top. Each span is read from its own category, describes our panel on that date rather than any offer, and moves as products come and go.

Around it, at September 2026 we counted 35 lender brands with a live heavy refurbishment bridge, 26 with a buy-to-let product for HMOs, 25 for multi-unit blocks, 20 for holiday lets, 14 taking ex-pats and 9 taking foreign nationals. Castle Trust's guides put it in every one of those groups. The numbers count brands with at least one live product, not the bank's own criteria.