The Intermediary – October 2026 - Flipbook - Page 48
Q&A
Hope Capital Property Finance
Jessica Bird speaks with Jonathan Sealey, CEO, and
Kate Cowan, CFOO at Hope Capital Property Finance,
about adapting bridging to the needs of the market
How would you characterise Hope
Capital’s bridging lending strategy?
In the past, our rates and the way we priced deals
were convoluted. Complicated pricing slowed
everyone down and made it harder for brokers
to give their borrowers certainty. It’s great to get
enquiries, but if a deal needs a referral or a credit
committee meeting just to decide whether we
can fund it, that takes away the main benefit of
bridging, which is efficiency.
In 2025, we repriced our lending structure to
make it all flat rate, removing the uncertainty.
Today we lend from £50,000 to £5m at up to 75%
loan-to-value (LTV). Brokers know exactly what
we offer, and when they bring us a deal they can
be confident their borrower will get the best
possible outcome. If a deal needs restructuring
during underwriting, the one thing the broker
and borrower can be sure of is that the pricing
won’t change, and with so much uncertainty in
the market, that assurance counts for a lot. The
simpler structure has also driven steady growth in
applications, which are up 40% year-on-year.
Where are the greatest
opportunities for growth?
First, with so much emphasis on AI and
automation, we see a gap we can fill. A lender
doesn’t need automated AIPs or a chatbot to
be efficient. It needs to keep making small
improvements – picking up the phone instead of
a long email chain or removing the obstacles that
slow decisions down.
Second, more regulated brokers are looking at
bridging, and they need a lender that will guide
them rather than just quote them. Supporting
their first few cases builds relationships that last.
If a broker passes an unregulated enquiry on,
they risk passing the client on, too. Those same
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The Intermediary | October 2026
clients often come back with regulated or buyto-let (BTL) needs, and the exit from a bridge
is frequently a term mortgage the broker can
arrange. Handling the bridge keeps the whole
relationship in house.
We are also seeing more brokers enticed by the
increased earning potential and slightly shorter
timeframes. But it’s easy for brokers starting
out to struggle with managing their borrowers’
expectations on pricing and timeframes. Making
sure the borrower knows what costs to expect
from the outset stops the broker wasting their
efforts. The perception is that completions can
happen in a couple of days, but this isn’t always
the case. We can move at pace, but we are
beholden to third-parties.
Knowing what documentation the lender
needs from the outset and providing it as soon as
possible gives brokers the best chance of a quick
completion, but managing expectations is the
most important thing. The most successful brokers
we see are the ones who have the exit in mind
before they even bring the deal to us.
Bridging and longer-term finance go hand in
hand, so bridging isn’t really a separate market.
Advisers who treat it as one risk missing both the
bridge and the refinance that follows.
Has more competition produced a
healthier bridging market?
Borrowers and brokers have more choice,
keener pricing and better service than they
did a few years ago. But as with any industry,
more competition creates saturation, and that
has led some lenders to stretch their criteria,
take on deals they wouldn’t usually consider
or increase their exposure. It can also flood the
market with rebridges and leave borrowers in a
difficult position.
A lender taking on a deal that wouldn’t usually
work can be dangerous for the borrower. If things
