Aspen has provided a £1.9 million refurbishment bridging loan to finance the conversion of a Grade I listed office building in Bath into five apartments.
The 18-month facility will refinance existing borrowing and fund substantial works to the city-centre property, which is expected to have a GDV of about £2.7 million when completed.
An initial £800,000 advance, at 80% LTV, includes £550,000 to refinance the developer’s existing purchase facility and £250,000 towards the refurbishment programme.
A further £1.1 million will be made available through staged development drawdowns during the project.
FIVE-APARTMENT CONVERSION
The Grade I listed building was acquired off-market in 2025 and occupies a corner site in Bath city centre. It is currently in poor condition and is to be converted into five two-bedroom apartments.
The borrower, an experienced developer, intends to retain the completed properties as income-producing assets within an existing investment portfolio. The planned exit from the bridge is through refinancing.
Aspen completed the loan in six weeks at a flat rate of 0.79% a month. Its in-house development monitoring team was involved in the transaction from the outset and will oversee subsequent drawdowns.
Under the lender’s process, a site visit will take place within 48 hours of the next drawdown request, with funds due to be released within 72 hours. Aspen said using its own monitoring team also removes the cost of appointing a third-party monitoring surveyor.
Laura Randall, senior underwriter at Aspen, says: “The project is being undertaken by a highly experienced developer who has completed 25 projects realising GDVs of over £20 million during the last 12 months.
“As such they completely understand the benefits of our unique in-house development monitoring team which brings more speed, reduced costs and much-needed continuity into every project.”
