The Bridging Trends Q1 2026 data was released earlier today and shines a light on how borrowers utilised bridging finance in the first quarter of the year. Here’s what you need to know.
Landlords and investors gained confidence
£199.2 million in bridging loans were transacted by Bridging Trends contributors* during Q1 – a slight decrease from Q4 2025’s £199.9 million – as borrowers seemingly took advantage of some short-lived stability. It’s worth noting that the war in Iran did not start until the end of February, meaning the full impact of this likely won’t be felt until Q2. In fact, landlords and investors seemed to be gaining confidence prior to the beginning of the conflict, with unregulated transactions increasing from 56% in Q4 to 59% in Q1.
Some of the biggest fluctuations in Q1 related to how bridging loans were being used. Purchasing an investment asset remained the most popular use of a bridging loan – static at 22% – but demand for unregulated refinance more than doubled from 5% in Q4 to 11% in Q1. This could be due to borrowers waiting for the base rate to drop, which, before the war, many had expected to happen by spring.
Demand for equity release fell
The proportion of bridging loans used to fund heavy refurbs and business injections plummeted from 11% in Q4 to 6% in Q1 and 8% in Q4 to 4% in Q1 respectively. These are often associated with equity release so it’s not surprising that the percentage of second charge bridging loans also fell from 11% in Q4 to 9% in Q1. Interestingly, Knowledge Bank reported that there has been an increase in searches made by UK bridging finance brokers for both ‘grade 2 listed building’ (from 31 in Q4 to 89 in Q1) and ‘development exit products’ (from 52 in Q4 to 99 in Q1) which suggests there is still an appetite among some borrowers for renovations, particularly when it comes to maximising their ROI before selling or refinancing.
The average loan-to-vale (LTV) fell from 56% in Q4 to 52% in Q1, which was probably a contributing factor to the average monthly interest rate also dropping, going from 0.83% in Q4 to 0.82% in Q1. The average term for a bridging loan remained at 12 months and the average completion time rose slightly, from 52 days in Q4 to 53 days in Q1.
Speedy solutions from MT Finance
Here at MT Finance we are here to support you and your clients. Our regulated and unregulated bridging loans have been designed to ensure they are as quick and effortless as effortless as possible. Lending decisions are often made within hours of an initial enquiry and funds can be released in a matter of days. To help speed up the process further, we also offer AVMs on standard residential property applications (bridging only) up to a maximum LTV of 65% and a maximum property value of £750,000. For more details on AVMs and bridging loans in general, get in touch with our team and they’ll reach out to you as soon as possible.
* Bridging Trends combines bridging loan completions from several specialist finance packagers operating within the UK bridging market: AFIG, Brightstar Financial, Brilliant Solutions, Capital B, Clever Lending, Clifton Private Finance, Complete FS, Enness, Impact Specialist Finance, LDNfinance, Optimum Elite and Sirius Finance. The data for top broker criteria searches is supplied by Knowledge Bank.
