Apply for a Bridging Loan
Fluent Bridging is a loans broker in the UK. We look through our extensive panel of lenders to offer you the best loan options tailored to your personal needs.
Bridging Loan
A bridging loan is short-term borrowing, usually taken out for no more than 12 months. Its main purpose is to ‘bridge’ a financial gap between a purchase and a sale of your properties, where funds are needed quickly. Interest accrues monthly (often referred to as ‘rolled’ or ‘retained’) and the entire loan amount is repaid when the funds become available from sale of property or refinance.
Why Choose Bridging Loans?
Property Investment
When buying a property at auction, you’ll usually need to complete within 14 or 28 days. A Buy-to-Let mortgage is often needed for long-term finance, but these can take weeks — sometimes months — to arrange. The property might also not be ‘mortgageable’ yet, due to its condition. That’s where a Bridging Loan can help. It can be arranged quickly to meet the auction deadline.
If you’re looking to buy a Buy-to-Let property, we can arrange fast funding to meet tight timescales. That gives you breathing room to sort the long-term mortgage, which then repays the Bridging Loan once it’s in place.
Bridging Loans are also ideal for properties that wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage — anything from derelict buildings to shells with no kitchen or bathroom. Once the property’s been renovated, it can either be mortgaged or sold, and the Bridging Loan repaid.
Chainbreak for a New Home
You’ve found your ideal home — closer to family or in a perfect location — but your current property hasn’t sold yet. Your equity is tied up and you need funds fast.
We can arrange a loan based on your equity, giving you up to 12 months to sell your current home and repay. There are no monthly payments — interest simply builds daily and is cleared when the loan is repaid. If your sale goes through in 43 days, you only pay interest for those 43 days plus any applicable fees. Most lenders don’t charge early repayment penalties, giving you full control.
Rebridging
If your existing Bridging Loan is coming to an end and the property isn’t ready — maybe due to delays with renovation or a slow sale — we can explore refinancing with a new lender.
Rebridging gives you extra time to complete your plans and repay, avoiding pressure at the end of the original loan term.
Mortgage Payment
If your mortgage has become unaffordable and you’re planning to sell, a Bridging Loan could repay your lender in full. That lets you put the property on the market properly, giving you time to secure a fair sale price — and protect your credit record in the process.
Debt Consolidation
If rising repayments are starting to put pressure on your finances, we may be able to help you consolidate your debts. A Bridging Loan can clear existing loans and credit cards, reducing your outgoings while your house is on the market or while you wait for other funds — like an inheritance — to come through.
Any Legal Purpose
A Bridging Loan isn’t just for property purchases. Whether you’re paying school fees, covering a gift, injecting cash into a business, building from scratch or discharging a bankruptcy — if it’s legal, and you’ve got a suitable property to secure against along with a clear repayment plan, we’ll look at your options.
Simple Cash Flow
If you’re working or retired and just need some short-term cash to keep things ticking over while waiting on a property sale, a Bridging Loan can provide the breathing space.
Considerations
Exit Strategy: How will you pay it back? Typical loan term is 12 months, so you need to make sure that the exit strategy is solid. Examples: Your property sells, re-mortgage, equity release or inheritance.
Interest Rates: Loan to Value (LTV) affects your interest rates which can be much lower under 55% loan-to-value. Compared to a mortgage – the interest rates are comparatively higher than a traditional mortgage. If less expensive options are available, we will make that clear at the outset. If Bridging is the only option, we work hard to minimise any costs to you and also keep your monthly interest as low as possible.
THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING A BRIDGING LOAN AGAINST YOUR PROPERTY. YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A BRIDGING LOAN, MORTGAGE OR ANY OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT.
How does it work?
- Fill out the “Get Quote” form and one of our friendly, experienced, advisors will call you.
- Tell us about your loan purpose, exit plan and amount of existing equity.
- We will review options, explain them in detail and compare an extensive panel of lenders to provide you with options.
- If you are happy with our solution, we will move on to the application stage.
- Please note that there is no fee for our no obligation initial consultation and there are no upfront broker/finder fees.
- We do a full fact find so we know in great detail your needs and get a decision in principle from the lender.
- Documents are then exchanged, checked, signed and re-checked before being sent to the lender.
- You will benefit from your own dedicated Case Manager who will work with lenders, solicitors and valuers to move you quickly and efficiently towards a Mortgage Offer being issued.
- Once the legal work and any outstanding underwriting has been completed then funds can be released.
What Are Bridging Loans For?
Chainbreak (Buy a new home before yours sells)
Property Investment (Auction, BTL, etc.)
Non-Mortgageable Properties
Home Improvements
Repay Existing Mortgage
Rebridging
Who We Work With
We work with leading lenders across the market to match you with the right deal.
FAQs
Yes and no. As mentioned above, the interest rates are typically higher than a long-term mortgage. However, if you are using the loan for the right purpose it doesn’t have to be expensive.
An example can be a customer taking out a £100k loan to renovate a property and pay all applicable taxes on it, which they then sell for £400k without investing any of their money. Even with high interest rates the profit still justifies the loan.
In summary, a Bridging Loan is a short-term lending vehicle designed to be used when there are no more cost effective solutions, we have vast experience in sourcing the cheapest and most flexible deals in the market.
Good idea: It allows you fast access to funds when required, and flexibility, as a short-term solution to your particular problem. Properties that are not mortgageable or the need to downsize are just a couple of examples.
Not a good idea: If there are other lending solutions that are available to you such as a residential mortgage, Buy-To-Let Mortgage or a secured loan, then we will highlight this at the very start of your enquiry with us, we are regulated by the FCA and pride ourselves on providing the very best level of advice, all calls maybe recorded and we document any advice that we give to you.
At Fluent Money, we offer bridging loans for both residential and commercial purchases. We can also advise on ground-up development finance.
Bridging finance options are conditional upon the lender and circumstances. Sometimes Bridging Loans can be arranged in a matter of days, other more complex transactions can be 6-8 weeks, our advisors will always try to manage your expectations before you commit to a Bridging Loan.
Bridging is a short-term loan where you need to make sure you are on track with paying it back. Interest rates are more expensive compared to mortgages and can get even more so if you don’t pay back on time. Some lenders can start charging fees at the end of the loan term.
Like any other loan secured on property your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on it.
Regulated: Used for personal purposes secured by your private home.
Non-regulated: Investment purposes like Buy-to-let or building a house to then sell on (known as a flip).
With some lenders, yes. As with any finance application, taking out a Bridging Loan affects an individual’s credit file and could impact the ability to gain finance in the future, your dedicated adviser will be on hand to explain in great detail how this would work for each applicant
You are in safe hands with Fluent, as well as our specialist Bridging Loan advisers we also have Mortgage Advisors in house so we can provide a rounded view and give you personal advice on all aspects of the Mortgage/Bridging Loan process.
Want to Find Out More?
Speak to our dedicating bridging loans team who will be able to help with any questions you may have.
Why Our Customers Recommend Fluent Money®
We’re one of the UK’s favourite finance brokers. Don’t believe us? See what our customers have to say:
Amazing
First time using the service for a bridging loan as our house sale completion was effectively taking longer than expected and had to break the chain to ensure we were able to complete house purchase. Matt was really helpful in explaining options, costs and finding the option that tailored to our needs. Gemma then helped through the steps to completion – all in all took a week to complete the whole process. Fantastic service.
Excellent Start to Finish
Once I had decided to accept the Bridging loan, I downloaded the app and it was very easy to use and the messaging service was the most efficient way I have ever had the pleasure to communicate via. From the initial enquiry, I was informed every step of the way. Every query was answered immediately via the instant message on the app (very impressive). Thank you to Gemma and her team.
What an amazing company!
We needed a bridging loan and chose Fluent Money. The whole process was seamless. I can’t recommend them highly enough!
Great service from first enquiry to completion
This is the first time we’d needed a bridging loan, but Fluent led us through the process. They were friendly yet very professional, from Ellie who answered my first query, through Matt, to Jessica, who was so supportive right through to the end. Nothing seemed to phase her. She always answered really quickly, and settled our wobbles. We weren’t prepared for some of the weirder questions from the lending bank’s solicitors, but that wasn’t the fault of Fluent! Jessica always managed to calm us!
Bridging Finance Success
Fluent successfully placed my bridging finance application, on standard terms, after four previous rejections with other brokers. Broker fee was relatively high but not due until after completion. My Adviser and Case Manager were both very helpful and efficient.
