Guide
How bridging finance is costed
A property that needs work is usually bought with a bridge: a short loan at a monthly rate, repaid when the property is sold or refinanced. Every appraisal on this site charges for one. This is how, and what it means for the cash you have to find.
Published 5 September 2026 · Updated 5 September 2026
A bridging lender advances a share of the purchase price, 75% by default here, and you find the rest. That 25% is the deposit, and it is the largest single piece of cash in most deals. The lender lends against the price you pay, not against what the property will be worth; that comes later, at the refinance.
Charged monthly on what is borrowed. The defaults are 1% a month for 6 months, the time to buy, do the work and get out. That is 6% of the advance, and since the advance is 75% of the price, it is 4.5% of the price.
On the advance, not the whole price. Charging the rate on the full purchase would be charging interest on the deposit, money you paid out of your own pocket and never borrowed. The difference on a £111,595 purchase is £5,022 rather than £6,696.
Both figures are yours to change under "More options" before a search and on any property page. A slower project is more months; a dearer lender is a higher rate; and every number on the page moves with them.
The bridge pays for three quarters of the house and nothing else. Everything below is paid in cash, whatever the lender does, because none of it is lent against a property that is not worth it yet:
- The deposit: the quarter of the price the lender does not advance.
- Stamp duty, due on completion. By who is buying.
- The refurbishment, room by room, and the professional fees. How they are built.
- The contingency on top of the work and the fees.
Every property page totals this as what you have to find, separately from what the deal costs. They are different questions: the second decides whether it is a deal, the first decides whether you can do it.
Sell
The sale repays the bridge and the rest comes back as cash, less the agent and conveyancing that only a sale pays, 2% by default. You have your profit and you no longer own anything.
Refinance
A mortgage lender advances against the finished value, 75% by default. That repays the bridge and whatever is left comes back to you, while you keep the property and can let it. Where the advance exceeds what you put in, the deal has cost you nothing to keep.
The bridge
| Purchase price | £120,000 |
| Advance at 75% | £90,000 |
| Deposit, in cash | £30,000 |
| Interest, 1% × 6 months on the advance | £5,400 |
The refinance, at an end value of £187,500
| Mortgage at 75% of end value | £140,625 |
| Bridge repaid | £90,000 |
| Released to you | £50,625 |
Against the cash that went in: the deposit, the tax, the work, the fees, the contingency and this interest.
Lender fees. Arrangement fees, exit fees, valuation and legal fees on the loan vary by lender and are not modelled; treat the bridging line as the interest only, and add a real quote. Nor is the interest assumed to be rolled up or serviced: that is between you and the lender, and it changes the cash flow rather than the cost.