Property type: Office
Office Property Bridging Loans Norfolk
We arrange bridging finance against office property across the Norwich Research Park, the Aviva HQ corridor in the city centre, the Broadland Business Park, Norwich Airport business district and the wider Norfolk office market. 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 permitted-development conversion to residential.
- Decisions in hours
- Completion in days
- £100k to £25m
- Norfolk specialists
Norfolk · Norfolk
Bridge to your next move.
The asset class
What office property looks like in Norfolk.
Office stock in this part of Norfolk ranges from Grade A floors at Broadland Business Park and the Norwich Research Park, through to secondary 1960s and 1970s blocks in central Norwich, through to converted Victorian and Edwardian terraced offices around the cathedral quarter and the Old City. The market is bifurcated. Well-located, well-specced floors near the research park or with parking and air-conditioning let well, often to research, life-sciences, insurance and back-office occupiers. Secondary blocks have struggled with hybrid working and many are candidates for Class MA permitted-development conversion to residential or full-planning hotel and student-accommodation schemes. 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 this market clusters around six use cases. The first is repositioning of secondary stock, where a buyer takes a half-empty 1970s block, refurbishes the common parts and the floors, and re-lets at a higher tone. The second is Class MA permitted-development conversion to residential, which has driven a large share of the office bridging book across Norwich, King's Lynn and Great Yarmouth town centres since the regime was widened. 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-resi 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 wanting to fund the next deposit or works elsewhere. The sixth is auction purchase of small office buildings, 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.
Norfolk context
The Norwich Office Market: Research Park, Aviva HQ and Class MA Pipeline
Norfolk office demand sits on top of an economy that is materially different from the rest of the East of England. The Norwich Research Park is the largest single life-sciences and research cluster between Cambridge and the East coast, anchoring the University of East Anglia, the John Innes Centre, the Quadram Institute, the Earlham Institute and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Around 3,000 researchers, clinicians and support staff work from the park, with a steady pipeline of spin-out occupiers taking lab-and-office space in the surrounding buildings. The Aviva headquarters on Surrey Street remains the anchor central-Norwich employer, with around 6,000 staff across the Marble Hall and adjoining campus. Broadland Business Park, on the Yarmouth Road approach, holds the larger out-of-town office estate, with Lloyds Banking Group, BT and several smaller insurance and professional-services occupiers. Norwich Airport business district carries a separate cluster of aviation, training and small-format office buildings. The Class MA pipeline of permitted-development conversions has been substantial across Norwich city centre, the King's Lynn town centre around the Tuesday Market Place and Friars Street, and the Great Yarmouth town-centre office stock that lost occupier demand during the last decade. Norwich International Airport itself anchors a small but recurring office demand around aviation services and freight. For a bridging case, the relevant point is that office demand in Norfolk is driven by research, life sciences, insurance back-office, and conversion-led repositioning rather than by the speculative tech-and-creative demand that drives Cambridge or central London. Lenders who understand this price the asset correctly. Lenders who do not, price as if it were any other secondary East of England 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. 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 Norfolk 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. 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 Norwich?
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Yes. Class MA permitted-development conversions from office to residential have been a steady part of the Norfolk bridging book since the regime was widened. 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. Article 4 directions apply in parts of central Norwich, so we check the planning position before going to lender, and we work with planning consultants who know the Norwich City Council, King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council positions on these conversions.
What LTV is realistic on a vacant office block?
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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 research-park tenants?
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Yes, and the named-bridging lenders are comfortable with the Norwich Research Park occupier profile. Life-sciences operators, university spin-outs, research-services businesses and clinical-trial suppliers are all recognised covenants. Lenders price for unexpired lease term, break clauses and any grant-funding dependency, with the strongest cases sitting at 65 to 70% LTV and the lower end at 60%. The presence of the John Innes Centre, the Quadram Institute and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is generally seen as a stabilising factor for office demand in the city.
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 Norfolk or across Norfolk.
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 Norfolk office bridging specialist.
We arrange short-term finance on office property across Norfolk, Norfolk County Council and the seven district councils. Indicative terms in 24 hours.