Regulated vs unregulated bridging loans and the lenders offering each

A regulated bridging loan is a short-term mortgage that falls inside the FCA's mortgage regime. Under article 61 of the Regulated Activities Order, a loan is a regulated mortgage contract if, when it is made, the lender gives credit to an individual or to trustees, the loan is secured by a mortgage on land, and at least 40% of that land is used, or intended to be used, as or in connection with a dwelling. For trustees, the dwelling must be used by a beneficiary of the trust or a related person, such as a spouse, parent or child.

The FCA Handbook then defines a bridging loan in that regime as a regulated mortgage contract with a term of 12 months or less, or one that meets the separate definition of an MCD exempt bridging loan: a temporary loan, open-ended or repayable within 12 months, used while the borrower moves to another financial arrangement for the property.

Our guide to bridging loans covers how bridging works and what it costs. This page is about the regulated line and the lenders on each side of it.

A bridging loan is usually unregulated when any one of the three conditions fails:

• A company borrows. Credit to a limited company or an SPV is not credit to an individual, so it is outside article 61. This covers most business bridging.
• The property is not mainly a home. A shop, office, warehouse or land with less than 40% residential use does not meet the dwelling test.
• An exclusion applies. Article 61A takes some contracts out, including investment property loans and second charge business loans.

Both of those exclusions need the loan to be for a business the borrower runs or will run. Article 61A lets a borrower sign a declaration that the loan is wholly or mainly for such a business, that they understand they will not have the protections of a regulated contract, and that they should take independent legal advice if in doubt. The loan is then presumed to be for business purposes, unless the lender, or anyone acting for it, knows or has reasonable cause to suspect otherwise. A declaration does not by itself take a loan on your own home outside the rules. If someone suggests you sign one, take independent legal advice first.

The lender has to follow the FCA's Mortgages and Home Finance: Conduct of Business sourcebook (MCOB), and entering into a regulated mortgage contract as lender is itself a regulated activity under article 61, so the lender must be authorised for it. For a borrower, the main differences are in how the exit is tested and what happens if it runs late.

• The exit is checked. For an interest-only bridge, MCOB 11.6.54G says a lender may ask for an independent valuation where the sale of your existing home will repay the loan, and should not accept a refinance exit unless it is reasonably satisfied that a mainstream mortgage lender will lend to you.
• Extensions are controlled. Under MCOB 11.6.55R a lender must not extend a regulated bridge unless the customer has made a positive choice to, and must assess affordability as if the extension were a new loan, or, where interest rolls up, discuss the effect on the customer's remaining equity first.
• Rolled-up interest is allowed. MCOB 11.6.58R permits interest roll-up on a bridging loan, one of the few regulated mortgages where it is allowed.
• Fewer lenders. Many bridging lenders state that they offer unregulated loans only, so the choice is narrower.

Compare lenders on the points that decide whether your case fits, before you compare price:

• Does the lender publish a regulated product at all, and does it deal direct or only through FCA-authorised intermediaries?
• Minimum and maximum loan, and the maximum loan to value on regulated cases.
• Maximum term, and what happens if the sale or refinance runs late.
• How interest is paid: monthly, retained or rolled up.
• Every fee in writing: arrangement, valuation, legal, administration and exit.
• The lender's entry on the FCA Register, checked against the details on its site.

Our page on loan to value explains how the percentages in the tables below are worked out. If you have not taken a bridge before, our guide to how to get a bridging loan takes you through each step.

These lenders publish a product they describe as regulated bridging. The table comes from their profiles in our lender directory, in alphabetical order, and is not a ranking.

• Glenhawk publishes regulated bridging of £250,000 to £2 million over 1 to 12 months, secured on the borrower's home or the home being bought, up to 75% loan to value. It says regulated loans are available only through FCA-authorised intermediaries, and that home improvements are considered case by case where the works are mainly cosmetic or non-structural.
• Octopus Capital publishes regulated residential bridging of up to 12 months and up to 65% loan to value, for clients borrowing against a home they live in or intend to live in. It also publishes a separate unregulated product for property investors.

Affirmative Finance says some of its loans are FCA regulated and carries a repossession warning, but its profile does not show which bridging products are regulated, so it is not in the table. Ask the lender directly.

A residential bridging loan is not always regulated. These lenders publish residential bridging and state on their own sites that they do not offer regulated loans, or, for Octopus, that the product shown is its unregulated one for investors.

• Black & White Bridging says it is not authorised or regulated by the FCA for its products, and is supervised by the FCA for money laundering purposes only.
• Colenko says it does not enter into regulated credit agreements, and its site is for professional intermediaries only.
• MS Lending Group says it is not authorised or regulated by the FCA and that its bridging on commercial and investment property is not regulated.
• Octane Capital, a trading name of Aldermore Bank, says it offers unregulated loans only.
• Rocket Bridging says it offers only unregulated residential bridging loans.

It is a small part of the mortgage market. Figures the FCA released in February 2026, from its product sales data, show 4,691 regulated bridging loans sold in 2025 with a total value of about £1.83 billion. Of those, 281 were second charge loans, worth about £42 million. The largest single band by number was loans of £120,001 to under £250,000, with 1,326 sales.

Regulated bridging is mostly used by homeowners buying before they sell. A business owner is more likely to need an unregulated bridge through a company; our guide to commercial bridging loans covers that side.

Work out which side of the line your case falls on: who will borrow, what the property is and who will live in it. Then gather the evidence for your exit. Capzy is a credit broker, not a lender, and the lender pays us when a loan completes. You can check your funding options with a soft search that does not affect your credit score; a lender's full application may involve a hard search, and all lending is subject to status and lender criteria. This is a general description of the rules, not legal or financial advice. More lender guides are in our lenders category.