Property type: Office
Office Property Bridging Loans Kent
We arrange bridging finance against office property across Kent, from the Sandwich Discovery Park life-sciences campus through the Tunbridge Wells professional-services hub, Maidstone County Town offices and the Class MA conversion pipeline in Maidstone, Ashford and Dartford. 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 Class MA change-of-use rather than vanilla investment hold.
- Decisions in hours
- Completion in days
- £150k to £25m
- Kent property focus
Kent · Kent
Bridge to your next move.
The asset class
What office property looks like in Kent.
Office stock in Kent ranges from purpose-built life-sciences buildings at Sandwich Discovery Park, through to Grade A and B floors in Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks, through to secondary 1960s and 1970s blocks in Maidstone, Chatham and Ashford that have struggled with hybrid working and are candidates for residential conversion under Class MA or full planning. The market is bifurcated. Well-located, well-specced floors near transport links and the County Town professional cluster let well, often to legal, financial-services and accountancy occupiers. Secondary blocks have softened, and many are now being acquired by developers running residential conversion plays. 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 Kent clusters around six use cases. The first is repositioning of secondary stock, where a buyer takes a half-empty 1970s block in Maidstone or Chatham, refurbishes the common parts and the floors, and re-lets at a higher tone. The second is change-of-use to residential under Class MA permitted development, which has driven a large share of the office bridging book in Maidstone, Ashford and Dartford town centres for the last several years. 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-residential 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 Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks or Canterbury wanting to fund the next deposit or works elsewhere. The sixth is auction purchase of small office buildings from the Clive Emson catalogues, 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.
Kent context
The Kent Office Market: Discovery Park, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and Class MA
Kent office demand sits on top of an economy that is materially different from the rest of the South East. Sandwich Discovery Park anchors a life-sciences cluster that grew out of the Pfizer research estate, with the site repositioned as a multi-tenanted science and technology park hosting CRO and biotech occupiers, alongside the pharmaceutical R&D legacy operators that remained on site after the Pfizer downsizing. The campus operates as one of the most distinctive office submarkets in southern England, with floor specifications and rental tone calibrated to laboratory and life-sciences use rather than general office use. Tunbridge Wells operates as a professional-services hub, anchored by legal firms, accountancy practices, wealth-management offices and the financial-services-adjacent occupiers serving the Royal Borough's high-net-worth catchment and the London commuter demographic; Mount Pleasant, Mount Ephraim and the Pantiles fringe carry the densest concentration of professional office stock. Maidstone County Town carries the administrative and county-government office stock alongside professional-services firms serving the Mid Kent catchment, with secondary office buildings around King Street, Week Street and London Road forming the bulk of the Class MA conversion pipeline. The Class MA permitted-development right has converted dozens of older Maidstone, Ashford and Dartford office buildings to residential since the route was introduced, and the conversion pipeline continues to feed the bridging book. Cross-Channel and HS1 connectivity through Ashford International, Ebbsfleet and Stratford supports a smaller office occupier base in Ashford TN23 and the Ebbsfleet Garden City growth zone. For a bridging case, the relevant point is that office demand in Kent is driven by life-sciences at Sandwich, professional services in Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks, county-government and mid-market services in Maidstone, and Class MA conversion appetite from developers in the older Maidstone, Ashford and Dartford town-centre stock. 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 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 and on the Sandwich Discovery Park life-sciences cases. 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 Kent 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. Class MA 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 a Class MA office-to-residential conversion in Maidstone or Ashford?
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Yes. Class MA permitted-development conversions in Maidstone, Ashford, Dartford and across the wider Kent town-centre office stock are one of the busiest parts of the office bridging book. 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. The Class MA route has prior-approval requirements that we work through with planning consultants familiar with the relevant local authority's approach, including the daylight, flooding and noise considerations that the prior-approval process tests.
What LTV is realistic on a vacant office block in Kent?
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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 life-sciences tenants at Sandwich Discovery Park?
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Yes. Bridging lenders with commercial property experience are comfortable with Discovery Park life-sciences occupiers, particularly the established CRO and biotech tenants on long-form leases. Lenders price for unexpired lease term, break clauses, and the specialist nature of laboratory fit-out. The strongest cases sit at 65 to 70% LTV with the lower end at 60% for shorter-lease or earlier-stage occupier covenants. The Pfizer legacy and the multi-tenanted repositioning of the campus are generally seen as stabilising factors for life-sciences office demand in the East Kent catchment.
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 Kent or across Kent.
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 Kent office bridging specialist.
We arrange short-term finance on office property across Kent, the Kent County Council and Medway Council unitary area and the wider Kent market. Indicative terms in 24 hours.