Clever Lending has recently secured a £1.1m regulated bridging facility for a broker’s client who wanted to purchase a farmhouse in Tonbridge, Kent, which needed full renovation.

The property came with a purchase price of £920,000 and the client needed £250,000 to renovate, which would create a four-bedroomed detached farmhouse set in 2.5 acres, with estimated sale price of £1.3m – £1.4m.

The specialist finance packager and master broker was contacted by an introducer who had worked with them before. A commercial and bridging specialist at the packager, Matthew Dilks, established that the customers would live in the property and so placed the case with a lender on a regulated bridging product. He also provided the advice to the customer and covered all of the regulatory requirements.

The lender, MT Finance, provided a loan totalling £1,119,066, at 50% loan to value (LTV). As it was a regulated bridging loan, it was for the maximum 12-month period.

The bridging loan was structured across two properties – the current and the purchase one – with an additional £70,000 required to finish an existing project. The current property would then be sold at £1.4m as the exit strategy.

Matthew Dilks (pictured), commercial and bridging specialist at Clever Lending, said: “At Clever Lending, we’re happy to take on cases which deviate from the norm, because we have the expertise and relationship with lenders to make an application work.

“In this instance, it made sense to opt for a regulated bridging loan and we found a lender that was happy to take on a derelict property, needing full renovation and offered reasonable rates in the process.”

David Kingham, Senior Underwriter at MT Finance, added: “This was a complex case and one which really required us to think outside of the box. Collaboration and strong levels of communication between ourselves and Clever Lending ensured that this progressed smoothly, and ultimately completed. Thank you to Matthew Dilks for giving us the opportunity to work on this.”