£202.7 million was advanced through regulated residential bridging loans worth more than £1 million in England during the first quarter of 2026, new FCA figures obtained by Orton Financial show.
High-value facilities accounted for almost 43% of the total value of regulated residential bridging lending during the quarter, despite representing fewer than one in 11 of the loans completed.
The findings suggest bridging finance is playing an increasingly important role in helping high-net-worth individuals manage complex and time-sensitive property transactions.
1,052 regulated residential bridging loans were completed against properties in England during Q1, with a combined value of £471.4 million.
Of those, 93 loans were worth more than £1 million and the combined value of the £1m-plus loans was £202.7 million.
£1m-plus loans represented 8.8% of transactions but 43% of the total value of regulated residential bridging lending.
The longer-term figures also show that regulated residential bridging activity in England has grown considerably since 2021. The number of regulated residential bridging loans increased from 2,134 in 2021 to 4,249 in 2025, a rise of 99%.
The total value advanced increased at a similar rate, from £862.9 million to more than £1.72 billion.
Activity above £1 million also increased substantially. The number of £1m-plus regulated residential bridging loans rose from 170 in 2021 to 321 in 2025, while their combined value increased from £293.9 million to £607.9 million. That represents an 89% increase in the number of high-value loans and a 107% rise in their total value.
For high-net-worth property buyers, potential uses include completing the purchase of a new home before an existing property has sold, securing a property within a strict deadline, refinancing an existing facility or funding a purchase while a more complex long-term mortgage is arranged. It may also be considered where a valuable property requires work before it qualifies for conventional mortgage lending.
Luther Yeates, head of mortgages at Orton Financial, said: “Bridging finance is not new, and it will not be appropriate for every borrower or every property transaction. But it should be considered as part of the wider range of options available to high-net-worth clients.
“People assume that someone with significant wealth should be able to complete a property purchase without difficulty. In reality, their financial circumstances can be considerably more complicated than those of a conventional borrower.
“A client may own a number of properties, have capital invested in a business or portfolio, receive income from different countries or hold assets through trusts and corporate structures. They can be very wealthy on paper without necessarily having millions of pounds in cash available on the precise day a property transaction needs to complete.
“That distinction between overall wealth and immediately accessible liquidity is particularly important in the prime property market.
“High-value property chains are rarely straightforward. A client may be waiting for the sale of another property, the release of money from an investment or the completion of a wider business transaction.
“At the same time, the person selling the property they want to buy may not be prepared to wait. In a competitive or time-sensitive situation, the buyer can risk losing the property even though they have substantial assets and a strong long-term financial position.
“A carefully structured bridging loan can provide the time needed to complete the purchase and then move on to longer-term finance or repay the facility when another asset is sold.
“But it is crucial that the adviser understands the whole transaction. This includes where the repayment money will come from, how realistic the timescale is, what could delay the exit and whether the client could continue to meet the costs if the original plan takes longer than expected.
“Although bridging can provide greater speed and flexibility than a conventional mortgage, it is usually more expensive and should be entered into with a clearly defined exit strategy. Possible exit routes include the sale of an existing property, refinancing onto a conventional mortgage, the sale of another asset or the receipt of funds from a known financial event.
“The value of advice in such cases is not simply finding a lender willing to provide the largest loan. It is about identifying whether bridging is genuinely the right tool, approaching lenders that understand the client’s circumstances and structuring the facility so that the borrower has sufficient time and flexibility to carry out the plan.
“Smart advisers will also test what happens if a sale is delayed, a valuation comes in below expectations or the longer-term mortgage takes more time to arrange.
“Bridging can be extremely useful in the right circumstances, but it needs to form part of a considered financial strategy rather than being treated as a last-minute fix.”
