The Intermediary – October 2026 - Flipbook - Page 45
BRIDGING
Opinion
bridging loan
entirely on cases whose risk profile
supports them. That is generally
something decided by a lending policy
set before the deal arrives, not a
concession made mid-transaction.
The legal process
The legal stage carries the largest share
of most timelines. While individual
solicitors are not the problem, there
are two factors which can influence
the speed of the legal process. The
first is their experience with bridging;
solicitors who are experienced in the
specific legal complexities of this type
of loan are generally faster to work
through certain issues.
The second is the overall shape
of the process. Both the lender
and borrower being represented
by separate firms means two files
and the need for correspondence
between them.
Where solicitors are busy, this
can lead to understandable delays
in the process. Many lenders work
with legal partners who offer dual
representation, which removes those
potential delays entirely. It isn’t right
for every case, but where it is, it can
make a noticeable difference.
Title enquiries can be the least
predictable element in the sequence
from the outside, with the findings
outside of a lender’s control. A clean
title raises few questions. Titles
with any one of a number of issues
– defects, an absent right of way, a
missing consent, a lease irregularity,
etcetera – must be resolved.
This resolution can depend on a
third-party that will act with speed,
but has a responsibility to do work
diligently rather than rushing it to
meet a funding deadline.
What can be changed is whether the
transaction relies on resolution at all:
many lenders offer title insurance,
which covers defined defects, allowing
a completion to proceed without
waiting on a remedy. The condition is
that the case qualifies with the insurer,
which is a maer of the insurer’s
criteria, not the lender’s.
Credit approval
The last variable is who can sign off on
a deal that is ready. Earlier, the terms
issued in response to an enquiry were
described as being credit-backed. This
is not the same as credit-approved.
When full underwriting has taken
place, there is frequently a creditapproval process.
Where information
is requested as a single
list, providing it quickly
and comprehensively
can help parts of the
underwriting process
move more smoothly”
This is effectively the final sign-off
step before funds are released. It is
usually – but not always – a quick step,
as lenders are typically keen to lend.
Sometimes this is something done at a
meeting that is scheduled a few times
a week; sometimes it is a per-deal signoff call.
However, sometimes it can be
a source of lag. Where a lender’s
facility requires its funder to approve
individual cases, a second approval
can run behind the first, oen late in
the process and with a delay usually
invisible to the broker.
This is one of the ways that
institutionally funded loans can
be governed. There is no single
predictable structure here, as they can
change from lender to lender, and the
institutions that fund them. It is also
a stage that lenders funded differently
simply do not have.
The final stretch, drawdown, is
short where everything above has
been sequenced properly. A transfer
from lender – or funder – to a
solicitor, to the borrower’s solicitor, to
the borrower.
What this means
Set out this way, the 46-day average
completion sorts into two categories.
Genuinely irreducible: thorough
underwriting, a physical inspection
where one is required, a title defect
where one exists and title insurance
is not available, and a third-party’s
own turnaround. Everything else is
a combination of internal decision,
queueing, handoffs and sequencing,
which is more obviously in a
lender’s control.
At Lakeshield, we built 7-Day
Residential Bridging around that
control. The timeline is measured
from legal cost undertaking to
completion, and it works because
the valuation approach, dual
representation and title insurance
take whole queues out of the sequence
rather than trying to run them faster.
Ultimately, these delays are not
about any one lender, and unforeseen
circumstances can emerge in any case.
However, a lender saying “we’re fast” is
no longer a claim a broker has to take
on trust.
A lender that can name the stages
they have compressed, and the
mechanisms that compress them, is
telling you something you can test
against the next case. ●
October 2026 | The Intermediary
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