Property type: Office
Office Property Bridging Loans Hampshire
We arrange bridging finance against office property across the Hampshire office market, with the book weighted toward Basingstoke, Eastleigh and the Whiteley business-park belt, the Aldershot and Farnborough defence-tech cluster, the Southampton city office market, and the Class MA office-to-resi conversion pipeline running through Basingstoke RG21 and Eastleigh town centre. Loan sizes run £200,000 to £15 million, terms from 1 to 24 months, with completions in 7 to 21 days. Most office bridges price between 0.75% and 1.35% per month depending on covenant, vacancy and the credibility of the exit. The book skews toward repositioning, refurbishment and change-of-use rather than vanilla investment hold.
- Decisions in hours
- Completion in days
- £100k to £25m
- Hampshire specialists
Hampshire · Hampshire
Bridge to your next move.
The asset class
What office property looks like in Hampshire.
Office stock in Hampshire ranges from Grade A floors at Basingstoke's central business district, the Eastleigh and Whiteley business parks, the Farnborough Aerospace Park and the Southampton waterfront, through to secondary 1960s, 1970s and 1980s blocks in the town centres of Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Aldershot and Andover, through to converted Victorian and Edwardian terraced offices around Winchester and Romsey. The market is bifurcated. Well-located, well-specced floors near transport hubs and business parks let well, often to defence, aerospace, life-sciences and insurance occupiers. Secondary blocks have struggled with hybrid working and many are candidates for residential conversion under Class MA permitted development or full planning. Each of those positions reads differently to a bridging lender and the underwriting follows.
Use cases
Bridging use cases for office assets.
Office bridging in Hampshire clusters around six use cases. The first is repositioning of secondary stock, where a buyer takes a half-empty 1980s block in Basingstoke or Eastleigh, refurbishes the common parts and the floors, and re-lets at a higher tone. The second is Class MA office-to-residential conversion, which has driven a large share of the office bridging book across the county for the last seven years and remains the dominant change-of-use route in Basingstoke RG21 and Eastleigh town centre. The third is purchase of single-let investments with short unexpired terms, where the buyer expects either a re-gear or a vacant possession play. The fourth is development-exit where an office-to-resi conversion has reached practical completion and the units are marketing; bridging refinances the development facility while the sales close out. The fifth is capital raise against a low-LTV owner-occupied office, often by a professional services firm in Winchester, Fleet or Farnborough wanting to fund the next deposit or works elsewhere. The sixth is auction purchase of small office buildings, typically below £1 million, where the 28-day clock and the vacant possession risk push the deal into bridging rather than term debt. Across all six, lenders look for a clear exit and a buyer who has done it before.
Hampshire context
The Hampshire Office Market: Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Whiteley and the Defence-Tech Cluster
Hampshire office demand sits on top of an economy that is materially different from the rest of South East England. The Basingstoke business district is a long-established corporate base for insurance and pharmaceuticals, with the European or UK headquarters of the AA, Eli Lilly and Sun Life of Canada anchoring a substantial back-office and head-office market across RG21 and RG24. The Eastleigh and Whiteley business-park belt sits along the M27 corridor between Southampton and Portsmouth and houses a parallel run of corporate occupiers, with Lockheed Martin UK at Whiteley and a cluster of aerospace and marine-engineering tenants. The Aldershot and Farnborough defence-tech cluster carries the Aldershot Garrison army headquarters, Farnborough Airport and the wider defence supply chain, with QinetiQ, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and a deep tier of defence-prime suppliers operating in the area. Southampton's city office market is anchored on the waterfront, the legal and shipping district around Cumberland Place, and the science-and-research occupiers linked to the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre. Sitting alongside this is the Class MA office-to-resi conversion pipeline, which has been active across Basingstoke and Eastleigh town centres as 1980s office stock falls vacant and the local plans support residential intensification. For a bridging case, the relevant point is that office demand in Hampshire is driven by insurance, defence and aerospace, life-sciences and back-office corporate rather than by the speculative tech-and-creative demand that drives Reading or Bristol. Lenders who understand this price the asset correctly. Lenders who do not, price as if it were any other secondary South East office market, and miss the deal.
Valuation and lenders
Valuation and lender considerations.
Office valuations come back on yield-and-rent for income-producing assets, vacant possession for empty floors, and residual or GDV for conversion plays. Bridging lenders generally lend on the lower of the relevant figures. LTV caps sit at 60 to 65% on vacant secondary office, 65 to 70% on tenanted investments with a recognisable covenant, and 60 to 65% on as-is value where the case is a Class MA conversion play with day-one drawdown plus a refurbishment tranche. MT Finance, Octane Capital, United Trust Bank, Hope Capital and Together all run office bridging, with Avamore Capital, ASK Partners, OakNorth and Shawbrook stronger at the larger end. Lenders care about planning position, covenant strength and the realism of the exit. Vague exits kill office cases harder than any other asset class.
What we arrange
What we typically arrange.
A typical Hampshire office bridge sits at £500,000 to £4 million, 60 to 70% LTV, 9 to 15 months term, 0.75 to 1.25% per month, arrangement fee 1.5 to 2%. We package the planning position, the covenant evidence and the exit plan up front so the lender sees the case the way the underwriter needs to see it. Conversion cases include a monitored works tranche; investment-purchase cases focus on the lease and the refinance route. Completion in 14 to 21 days is normal where the title and planning are clean. Where there is a contested planning position, the underwriting takes longer and the rate moves up.
FAQs
Office bridging questions
Can we bridge an office to residential conversion in Basingstoke or Eastleigh?
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Yes. Class MA office-to-residential conversions in Basingstoke RG21 and Eastleigh town centre have been the most consistent part of the Hampshire office bridging book since the prior approval regime was widened. We arrange the day-one purchase tranche against the as-is office value, a works tranche released against monitoring sign-off, and exit to BTL refinance for held units or open-market sale for disposals. Article 4 directions apply in parts of the relevant boroughs, so we check the planning position with planning consultants familiar with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and Eastleigh Borough Council policy before going to lender.
What LTV is realistic on a vacant office block?
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Most lenders cap at 60 to 65% LTV against vacant possession value on a secondary office. Where the buyer has a credible repositioning plan, a strong track record, and a realistic refinance exit on a refurbished and re-let basis, 65% is achievable. Day-one LTV against purchase price can sit higher where the property is materially below market value, with the gap closed by an independent valuation. The exit drives the LTV more than the entry, so a clear refinance route opens the door to better terms.
Do bridging lenders take office cases backed by defence-sector tenants?
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Yes, and the named-bridging lenders are comfortable with the Hampshire occupier profile. Defence prime contractors and their tier-one suppliers around Aldershot and Farnborough, aerospace tenants at Whiteley, marine-engineering consultancies around the Solent, insurance and pharmaceutical tenants in Basingstoke, and life-sciences spin-outs from the University of Southampton are all recognised covenants. Lenders price for unexpired lease term, break clauses and any government-contract dependency, with the strongest cases sitting at 65 to 70% LTV and the lower end at 60%. The presence of the Aldershot Garrison, Farnborough Airport and the BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin footprint is generally seen as a stabilising factor for office demand across the county.
Tell us about the deal
Indicative terms within 24 hours.
A short triage call, then a sized indicative offer against a named lender for your office property in Hampshire or across Hampshire.
Regulated bridging on owner-occupied residential property falls under FCA regulation. Unregulated bridging on commercial and investment property does not. We are not directly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and we introduce regulated cases to authorised partners who carry out the regulated activity.
Next step
Talk to a Hampshire office bridging specialist.
We arrange short-term finance on office property across Hampshire, covering Hampshire County Council and the Portsmouth and Southampton unitary areas. Indicative terms in 24 hours.