United Trust Bank has unveiled a package of bridging loan changes aimed at making smaller transactions more accessible and competitive for brokers and borrowers.

The lender has halved its minimum bridging loan size from £100,000 to £50,000, effective immediately.

At the same time, it has introduced a new reduced administration fee of £195 on loans up to £100,000, compared with the standard £695.

For smaller cases, interest rates now start at 0.68% per month for regulated bridging and light refurbishment loans, and 0.70% for unregulated loans.

Rates for regulated bridging and light refurbishment borrowing between £100,000 and £1.5m have also been reduced. The new structure offers pricing of 0.61% at up to 50% loan-to-value (down from 0.68%), 0.64% at up to 60% LTV (down from 0.73%), 0.68% at up to 70% LTV (down from 0.75%) and 0.72% at up to 75% LTV (down from 0.80%).

The changes follow an earlier expansion of UTB’s automated valuation model criteria, which now allows AVMs on suitable properties up to 75% LTV, including light refurbishment projects where total borrowing does not exceed the initial value threshold.

Paula Purdy (pictured), sales director – bridging at United Trust Bank, said: “We’ve listened to feedback from brokers telling us that they have customers who could benefit from using a bridging loan but only at smaller deal sizes.

“The new £50,000 minimum loan size and lower admin fee opens up UTB’s competitive bridging and light refurbishment loans to a much wider market, and we’re sure brokers will be pleased to see that we’ve responded to their requests.

“The bridging market remains intensely competitive and these significant reductions to our regulated loan pricing are excellent news for brokers and their customers looking for an experienced and approachable lender offering outstanding value for money.”