Property type: Leisure
Leisure Property Bridging Loans Cambridgeshire
We arrange bridging finance against leisure property across central Cambridge, the Ely cathedral catchment, the Peterborough city centre and the wider Cambridgeshire tourism market. Loan sizes run £250,000 to £10 million, terms from 6 to 18 months, completions in 10 to 21 days. Leisure bridging prices at 0.85 to 1.4% per month depending on trading position, refurbishment scope and the credibility of the exit.
- Decisions in hours
- Completion in days
- £100k to £25m
- Cambridgeshire specialists
Cambridgeshire · Cambridgeshire
Bridge to your next move.
The asset class
What leisure property looks like in Cambridgeshire.
Leisure as an asset class covers hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and bars, gyms and health clubs, soft-play and indoor-leisure venues, and the small mixed hospitality-and-retail stock that anchors central Cambridge, Ely Market Place and the Peterborough city core. Trading-business value drives most of these assets, which makes the underwriting more like specialist commercial lending than vanilla property bridging. Vacant possession value, the alternative-use figure and the going-concern value can all differ materially. Bridging lenders typically lend on the lower of vacant possession value and going-concern value, with a haircut where the trading position is weak or the asset is materially specialist.
Use cases
Bridging use cases for leisure assets.
Leisure bridging cases in this market sit in a tight set. We see purchases of small hotels and guesthouses in central Cambridge serving college visitor flow and tourism, in the Ely cathedral catchment, and in central Peterborough serving the rail-hub business traveller, typically £600,000 to £2.5 million, where the buyer plans a refurbishment and a refinance to term commercial debt once trading is rebased. We see purchases of restaurant and bar units coming out of administration where speed of completion is the price of getting the deal. We see capital-raises against unencumbered leisure assets held by long-term operators, often to fund the deposit for the next acquisition. We see change-of-use plays where a tired leisure unit is bought, converted to residential or mixed-use, and exited to refinance or sale. And we see development-exit cases on small leisure schemes where practical completion is reached and the bridge refinances the development facility while units sell out. Across all of these, lenders care about trading evidence, the operator's track record, and the exit.
Cambridgeshire context
Cambridge College Tourism, Ely Cathedral and the Fenland Leisure Economy
Cambridgeshire leisure trades on a tourism base that is materially stronger than most equivalent UK inland regions. Cambridge college tourism anchors year-round visitor flow, with around eight million day-visitors and overnight stayers a year drawn by the colleges, the Backs, King's College Chapel, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the punt-tour trade along the Cam. The city centre supports a dense run of small hotels, boutique guesthouses, restaurants and bars serving both the tourism market and the academic-visitor flow associated with the university conference and event calendar. Ely's cathedral and the Oliver Cromwell museum draw a steady year-round visitor base supporting a smaller but established hotel-and-guesthouse market around the city centre and the riverside. Peterborough city centre carries business-traveller hotel demand anchored by the East Coast Main Line rail hub, the Cathedral Square redevelopment and the Stagecoach UK head office. Across the Fens, leisure is thinner and more seasonal: the canal-boat hire trade running out of Burwell, Ely riverside and the Great Ouse and Cam Lakes drives a niche but consistent summer market, with Constable country fringe walking and cycling trade reaching as far north as the Sawston edge. Bridging lenders read this geography confidently. Cambridge city-centre hotels with strong trading evidence and a clear refinance exit sit comfortably at 60 to 65% LTV; the Fenland canal-boat and rural-leisure operators sit at the tighter end of the LTV range.
Valuation and lenders
Valuation and lender considerations.
Leisure valuations come back on a trading-business basis where the asset is going concern, and on a vacant-possession-with-alternative-use basis where trading is weak or interrupted. Bridging lenders typically lend on the lower figure with an additional haircut. LTV caps sit at 55 to 65% on most leisure cases, with the higher end reserved for hotels with strong trading evidence and the lower end for specialist or single-use leisure. MT Finance, Octane Capital, Hope Capital, United Trust Bank and Together all take leisure on bridging, with Shawbrook, Cambridge & Counties and OakNorth stronger on hotels and the larger end of the market. Trading accounts, RevPAR data for hotels and a clear operator narrative all help the case clear underwriting.
What we arrange
What we typically arrange.
A typical leisure bridge sits at £500,000 to £3 million, 55 to 65% LTV, 9 to 18 months term, 0.85 to 1.3% per month, arrangement fee 1.5 to 2%. Hotels and guesthouses price softer than specialist single-use leisure. Refurbishment cases include a monitored works tranche. Exit is typically refinance to term commercial debt, sale to a trading operator, or change-of-use exit to residential where the planning supports it. Completion in 14 to 21 days is normal; auction-style speed is achievable with title insurance.
FAQs
Leisure bridging questions
Can we bridge a small hotel purchase in central Cambridge?
+
Yes. Small hotel and guesthouse purchases in central Cambridge serving the college tourism and university conference market are a regular part of the leisure book. Lenders need trading accounts for the last two to three years where the business has been operating, a clear refurbishment and trading plan, and a credible refinance exit at stabilised income. Loans typically run 60 to 65% LTV on the lower of vacant possession value and going-concern value, with the works tranche released against monitoring sign-off. Refinance to term commercial debt is the most common exit at 12 to 15 months.
How do bridging lenders treat restaurant or bar purchases coming out of administration?
+
Speed is usually the binding constraint and bridging is built for it. We have completed restaurant and bar purchases in 7 to 14 days from offer where the title is clean and title insurance is available. Lenders lend against the lower of vacant possession value and any defensible going-concern figure, with an extra haircut where trading has been interrupted. LTV typically caps at 55 to 60% on these cases. The exit is usually a sale to an operator or a refinance once the business is re-established and trading.
Does the Fenland canal-boat hire trade qualify for leisure bridging?
+
Yes, in specialist circumstances. The canal-boat hire operators along the Great Ouse, the Cam and out of Burwell trade on a seasonal market with established booking platforms. Where the underlying asset is a marina, mooring building or boatyard, the bridging case reads as small commercial leisure. Lenders typically lend at 55 to 60% LTV on the lower of trading-business and underlying property value, with trading evidence drawn from the operator's accounts and the marina or boatyard fees.
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 leisure 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 leisure bridging specialist.
We arrange short-term finance on leisure property across Cambridgeshire, the Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council unitary areas, and the wider Cambridgeshire market. Indicative terms in 24 hours.