London Bridging Finance: Off-Plan Completion Notices on Prime New-Builds

You exchanged on a Nine Elms, Battersea or Mayfair new-build years ago. The developer has served a notice to complete. Your high-street lender's valuer has just marked the unit below the contract price.

The advance shrinks, or the offer is withdrawn. You still have to complete at the original price, with the deposit already sitting with the seller. The window is measured in working days, not months.

That is the real search behind London bridging finance in prime central London: an off-plan long-stop, a down-valuation, and a funding gap between the price you are contracted to pay and what a term lender will now advance against the finished unit.

Why off-plan completions stall in prime London

High-density new-builds are awkward for a term mortgage. Comparable evidence is thin, and valuers often mark untested blocks below the price you contracted. A Decision in Principle that looked fine at exchange can fail when the lender sees today's report.

The contract mechanics compress everything. Most off-plan agreements let the developer serve notice once practical completion is certified, and ten working days is a common period. Legal title, management packs and warranty documents frequently arrive in that same fortnight.

Income tests slow the file further. An SPV, a trust or a foreign national does not always fit a UK salary box. That is one reason UK banks decline foreign nationals seeking short-term property finance. We underwrite the completed asset and the exit instead.

How London bridging finance funds the notice

A prime London bridging loan can complete at up to 75% LTV on the lower of the contract price and current market value. It does not rewrite the contract. If the valuation sits below the price, you still inject the equity gap.

What you buy is time. Tenor runs 3–24 months. Interest can be rolled up where agreed, so you are not servicing from UK income while you refinance or sell.

Where a purchase covers more than one unit, or works follow completion, drawing the facility in tranches rather than as a single advance is considered case by case, subject to terms.

A worked example

Take a Nine Elms flat exchanged off-plan at £4.2M with a 10% deposit paid at exchange. The valuer inspects on certification and reports £3.8M. The figures below are illustrative, not a quote.

So the charge covers £2.85M and you fund £930,000 in cash, on top of the deposit already committed. SDLT, legal fees, the valuation and the lender's fees sit outside that gap and are also payable on the day. Counting the deposit, roughly £1.35M of equity ends up behind a £3.8M asset.

The number that matters is the second-to-last line, and it is the first thing to establish. A valuation 10% light on a £4M contract moves the cash requirement by several hundred thousand pounds, and no structure makes that disappear.

Stamp Duty Land Tax remains payable on completion in England. The facility does not fund SDLT, and this is not tax advice.

If the buyer sits in an offshore SPV, start the KYC path we use for foreigner bridging loans the day the notice arrives. Expect source-of-funds checks, and ATED where a dwelling is enveloped.

You can see how the lending process works from term sheet to first charge. Speed hangs on a clean Report on Title and a valuer who can inspect now, not next month.

When a bridge is the right tool

Use it when the title will be clean at completion. A first charge must be available, and a refinance or resale inside the tenor has to be credible. Fast completion in prime central London is the same problem with a different vendor: the date will not wait.

The exit is where most files are decided. A term refinance once the block has lettings and sales evidence, a sale at a realistic guide price, or a dated liquidity event elsewhere in the balance sheet all work. A hope that values recover is not an exit, and we will not treat it as one.

Do not use it to paper over a valuation hole you cannot fill. Building-safety or snagging issues that block a term refinance make this the wrong tool. We are a direct private lender, not a bank, and we lend to high-net-worth individuals, SPVs and corporates, against the asset and the exit.

The main risk is completing at a contract price above today's security value. If the exit slips, you still owe a short-term facility. Related: strategic bridge funding for a prime Hampstead property.

What to do next

The completion date in your contract is fixed. Size the charge off today's value, fund the equity gap, and only then decide whether the exit will carry the tenor.