Property type: Holiday Let
Holiday Let Bridging Loans Cambridgeshire
We arrange bridging finance against holiday lets and short-stay property across central Cambridge, the Ely cathedral catchment, the Fens canal-boat and waterway villages and the wider Cambridgeshire rural-and-village holiday-let market. Loan sizes run £150,000 to £2 million, terms 6 to 18 months, completions in 7 to 21 days. Holiday-let bridging across this inland geography is a smaller part of the regional book than the coastal regions, but the asset class is real and growing.
- Decisions in hours
- Completion in days
- £100k to £25m
- Cambridgeshire specialists
Cambridgeshire · Cambridgeshire
Bridge to your next move.
The asset class
What holiday let property looks like in Cambridgeshire.
Holiday-let property in Cambridgeshire covers a narrower set than coastal regions. The main holiday-let categories are short-let apartments in central Cambridge serving the college tourism, university conference and academic-visitor market, short-let cottages and apartments in the Ely cathedral catchment serving tourism and family-visiting trade, canal-boat moorings and waterside cottages around Burwell, Ely Lakes and the Great Ouse and Cam waterway network, and constable-country-fringe rural cottages reaching as far south as the Sawston edge. The income profile is less seasonal than the coast: Cambridge college-tourism short-lets trade year-round on a steady academic-visitor curve, while the Fens canal-boat hire is summer-weighted with a meaningful shoulder season. Lenders read the rental evidence on a 12-month basis with a discount for void weeks and management costs.
Use cases
Bridging use cases for holiday let assets.
Holiday-let bridging cases in this market cluster around four patterns. The first is purchase of a central Cambridge short-let apartment with the intention of marketing through Airbnb, Booking.com or direct booking to the academic-visitor and conference market, where the bridge funds the purchase plus a refurbishment to short-let standard, with the exit to a specialist holiday-let BTL mortgage once the rental evidence is established. The second is refurbishment-and-reposition cases where an existing Ely or rural Cambridgeshire holiday-let cottage is bought and upgraded to a higher rate band, with the exit to refinance at stabilised income. The third is capital raise against an unencumbered holiday-let portfolio held by an established operator, often to fund the deposit for the next acquisition. The fourth is conversion plays where a former mixed-use building, barn or canal-boat moorings marina is bought and converted to multiple holiday-let units. Lenders care about location, rental evidence, the operator's track record and the realism of the holiday-let BTL refinance exit.
Cambridgeshire context
Holiday-Let Demand from Cambridge College Tourism to the Fens Canal-Boat Network
Cambridgeshire holiday-let demand is anchored on three quite different markets. Cambridge college-tourism short-letting fills small apartments and houses across central Cambridge, Newnham and the streets running off the city centre with year-round visitor flow tied to the academic calendar, the college visitor programmes and the university conference and event schedule. Booking platforms across Airbnb, Booking.com and the boutique short-let agencies all carry meaningful Cambridge stock with consistent occupancy rates. The Ely cathedral catchment carries a smaller short-let market, with cottages and apartments around the cathedral and the riverside trading on a steady tourism flow that peaks around Easter and the summer months. The Fens canal-boat hire and waterway holiday economy runs out of Burwell, Ely Lakes and the Great Ouse and Cam waterway network, with both narrowboat hire bases and waterside cottage stock trading through Sykes Cottages, Hoseasons and direct-booking channels. Constable country fringe walking and cycling trade reaches as far north as the Sawston edge, supporting a smaller rural-cottage holiday-let market across the south Cambridgeshire villages. Bridging lenders price the Cambridge short-let stock confidently given the year-round trading evidence; the Fens and rural-village stock prices more cautiously given the tighter seasonality.
Valuation and lenders
Valuation and lender considerations.
Holiday-let valuations come back on a residential comparable basis for the underlying property, with the holiday-let income recognised by some lenders for stress-test purposes on the refinance exit. Bridging lenders lend on the underlying residential value rather than any holiday-let investment uplift, with LTV caps sitting at 70 to 75% on stabilised holiday lets and 65 to 70% on conversion or refurbishment cases. MT Finance, Octane Capital, Roma Finance, LendInvest, Hope Capital, Octopus Real Estate, Together and United Trust Bank all take holiday-let bridging. Specialist holiday-let BTL lenders for the refinance exit include Cumberland Building Society, Furness Building Society, Hodge and the dedicated holiday-let products at Precise Mortgages and Kent Reliance.
What we arrange
What we typically arrange.
A typical holiday-let bridge sits at £200,000 to £750,000, 70 to 75% LTV, 6 to 12 months term, 0.85 to 1.15% per month, arrangement fee 1.5 to 2%. Refurbishment cases include a works tranche. Exit is to specialist holiday-let BTL refinance, sale to an investor, or roll-up into a larger portfolio refinance. We work with holiday-let-specialist BTL brokers to package the refinance alongside the bridge so the exit is committed before drawdown.
FAQs
Holiday Let bridging questions
Can we bridge a short-let apartment purchase in central Cambridge?
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Yes. Central Cambridge short-let apartment purchases targeting the college-tourism, academic-visitor and university-conference market are a regular part of the holiday-let book. Lenders typically lend on underlying residential value at 70 to 75% LTV, with the holiday-let income recognised on the refinance exit rather than the bridge itself. Refurbishment to current short-let standard, including kitchen, bathrooms, soft furnishings and EPC works, is funded through the works tranche. Exit to specialist holiday-let BTL at 9 to 12 months is the usual route.
How do BTL lenders treat holiday-let income on refinance after a bridge?
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Specialist holiday-let BTL lenders recognise holiday-let income for stress-test purposes, typically requiring 12 months of trading evidence or a recognised agency projection. The exact rental cover and stress test varies by lender. We sequence the bridge so that by month 9 to 12 the trading evidence supports the refinance test cleanly. Where evidence is shorter, the lender pool narrows and the rate moves up, but the refinance is still achievable on the right asset.
What rate range applies to holiday-let bridging across Cambridgeshire?
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Stabilised central Cambridge college-tourism short-lets with strong year-round rental evidence and a clear refinance exit price at 0.85 to 0.95% per month at 70 to 75% LTV. Refurbishment, Ely cathedral catchment and Fens rural-cottage cases price 0.95 to 1.2% per month at 65 to 70% LTV. Arrangement fees are 1.5 to 2%. Locations with year-round trading evidence price softer than locations with a tighter seasonality pattern, reflecting the rental-cover comfort the refinance exit will need to demonstrate.
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 holiday let property in Cambridgeshire or across Cambridgeshire.
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 Cambridgeshire holiday let bridging specialist.
We arrange short-term finance on holiday let property across Cambridgeshire, the Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council unitary areas, and the wider Cambridgeshire market. Indicative terms in 24 hours.