Bridging loans are fast & flexible, or at least that’s the line regularly used about them. Every bridging lender claims it, rarely as explicitly, but it’s at the core of their approach and marketing. It is on their product pages, in how their BDMs discuss their products, and case studies hint at it without using the words. But is it true?
The flexible part certainly seems to be, as without the flexibility to fund properties or borrowers who are ineligible for mainstream finance, there’d be a lot less need for bridging. This flexibility remains crucial for investors who wouldn’t be eligible for BTL mortgages, such as financing auction purchases or acquiring properties that need refurbishment. Whether bridging is fast is more questionable.
BridgingTrends data for Q2 of 2025 shows the average completion time is 48 days. While that figure combines both regulated and unregulated bridging, a seven-week average cannot be described as fast. For comparison, while there is no single source for the length of time to complete a BTL mortgage, MortgageFinanceBrokers put it at 7-10 weeks, FinBri at 4-8 weeks, and MortgageRequired at 4-6 weeks. In this context, bridging loans only offer flexibility – any borrower who is able will opt for the cheaper option of a term product if completion timelines are close enough.
Bridging hasn’t always taken so long. BridgingTrends data only goes back to 2015; ten years ago, the average completion time was 34 days, two weeks faster than today. Over time, bridging had gotten slower – completion times were in the low 40-day range by 2017, 50 days by 2020, and up to 58 days in 2023. Some of this reflects circumstances outside any lender’s control, like pandemics and disastrous budgets, but completion times were already rising beforehand.
This isn’t to say individual bridging loans cannot be fast. Most lenders highlight deals they’ve completed within 2 or 3 days, and Lakeshield is no exception. The issue is reliability. Can the average bridging lender consistently complete quick loans? The Q2 average of 48 days suggests not.
The case for faster bridging
Some loans require faster completions. A common example is financing to meet the typical auction purchase deadline of 28 days. Most bridging lenders can manage this timeframe when they win this kind of business, so speed is possible and repeatable. It is just not extended to every bridging loan.
Does that mean consistent speed is impossible, even sub-28-day speed? At Lakeshield, we don’t think so. We also don’t think sub-28 days is particularly fast, which is why we recently launched our 7-day residential bridging product.
Our 7-day residential bridging product isn’t radically different from our bespoke residential bridging. It covers England & Wales, has no rate premium for speed, and LTVs go up to 75%. It’s available for BTL properties, HMOs, MUFBs, and listed buildings. Borrowers can have adverse credit, be based overseas, or be first-time landlords. The only current caveat is a maximum loan size of £1m.
What makes seven days possible
The secret to repeatedly funding loans within seven days is a combination of three factors: company size, funding model, and processes. First, company size. We’re a lean, efficient operation. Lakeshield’s other co-founder, Jonathan, and I are in the office every day and work closely with our BDM and underwriting teams. I make the initial credit decision on all deals, and whether they come through our BDMs, our website, or directly by email, terms are issued quickly.
Our funding model also plays a vital role. We’re entirely backed by private capital, so we aren’t bound by the covenants that other lenders are – these influence the loans they can offer, the mix of property types they need on their loan book, or even the areas of the country they can lend in. Leveraging private capital means we maintain flexibility across all aspects of the loan process and decide on the merits of every bridging loan based on the asset, independent of timescale.
Finally, there are our processes. To reliably complete loans in seven days, without exposing us to unreasonable risk as a lender, we have examined and refined our existing processes to reduce the time it takes for loans to progress. We had a head start as speed has always been at the core of our lending, with meaningful internal communication keeping deals moving quickly.
We’ve considered the role of technology and adopted new solutions to support our underwriting, reducing time-consuming repetitive tasks, as well as supporting our documentation and communications. It has also been important to re-evaluate the risks associated with residential bridging to determine the appropriate valuation approach and to work with our legal partners to streamline documentation requirements. We’ve left no stone unturned to make our approach as quick and efficient as possible.
So, is bridging truly fast & flexible? We can’t speak for the industry at large, but at Lakeshield, we believe that it should be. We certainly are. For brokers and investors, understanding which lenders can truly combine speed and flexibility is more important than ever.
Originally published in
Business Moneyfacts, November 2025