Market
Perspectives
Notes on bridge finance, development capital, and prime European real estate markets.
Bridging Loans in France: How Bridge Finance Works for Prime Property
International borrowers looking for a bridging loan in France often find that domestic bank processes are slow or ill-suited to a short-dated need. A practical guide to who lends on French bridges, how facilities are sized and structured, and what shapes the timeline.
Refinancing a Bridge Loan: When a Private Bank Is the Exit
A bridge loan is short-term capital: the exit is built into its logic from the start. For prime European investors holding assets long-term, the natural refinancing route is often a private bank rather than a specialist lender. A guide to planning that transition before the bridge is drawn.
Bridge Finance Through a French SCI: What Borrowers Need to Know
The SCI is the dominant vehicle for holding prime French residential property, but it shapes the financing process in ways that first-time borrowers often do not anticipate. A practical guide to how lenders approach security, documentation and timing on a French SCI bridge mandate.
Ground-Up Development Finance in the UK: Terms, Process and What Lenders Need
Specialist development lenders follow a structured drawdown process that is very different from a bridge loan. A practical guide to how UK development finance is sized, drawn and repaid, from planning consent to practical completion.
What a Development Finance Monitoring Surveyor Does, and Why It Matters to Borrowers
Drawdowns in a development finance facility are not automatic: they are released against an independent professional's certification of costs and works completed. Understanding the monitoring surveyor's role helps developers plan their timeline and avoid the most common sources of delay.
Financing Prime European Real Estate Through a Luxembourg Structure
Luxembourg is not a trophy real estate market, but it is Europe's dominant structuring jurisdiction for prime cross-border assets. How lenders approach SOPARFI-held properties, and what bridge and development finance looks like through a Luxembourg holding company.
Lex Koller Explained: Can a Foreigner Buy Property in Switzerland?
Switzerland has one of the most restrictive ownership regimes in Europe for non-residents. What Lex Koller actually restricts, where the exemptions sit, and why it is the first thing to settle before financing a Swiss asset.
Financing a Residential Investment Portfolio in Switzerland
Beyond the trophy lakefront and ski stations, much of the real Swiss demand is from private landlords holding multi-unit residential stock. How a first-charge bridge against a Swiss portfolio is sized, secured and exited.
Bridge Loan or Development Finance? How to Tell Which You Need
The two products are often used interchangeably in conversation, but they are underwritten differently, priced differently and suited to different stages of a transaction. A short guide to choosing the right tool.
What a Lender Actually Looks for in a Bridge Loan Application
Having underwritten more than £500M of real estate loans on the lender's side of the table, our founder sets out what a credit team is really assessing, and how borrowers can present a file that moves quickly.
Exit Strategies for a Bridge Loan: Planning the End at the Start
A bridge is only as good as its exit. We look at the three routes out of a bridge facility, how lenders weigh them, and how to build optionality into a loan before it is drawn.
Financing Prime Property in France and Monaco as a Non-Resident
Cross-border ownership is the norm in prime French and Monégasque real estate, but the holding structure shapes everything that follows, including who will lend. A guide for non-resident buyers.
Bridge Finance in Prime European Markets: What Borrowers Need to Know
A bridge is bought for speed and certainty, not for cost of funds. How bridge finance is used and structured across the UK, France, Monaco, Switzerland and Luxembourg, and what changes from one market to the next.
Structuring the Capital Stack for a Ground-Up Development
Senior debt, stretch-senior, mezzanine and equity each do a different job in a development. How the layers fit together, what each one costs the scheme in complexity, and why the senior lender reads the whole stack.
How Hospitality Brand Choice Shapes Asset Financeability
Brand selection drives ADR, NOI and exit value, but it also drives lender appetite, underwriting LTV and refinancing risk. We look at brand decisions through the lens of bridge and development finance.