The image of Swiss real estate finance is a lakefront villa in Cologny or a chalet in Verbier. The reality is often more prosaic and, for an arranger, more interesting: a private landlord holding a block of apartments in an established town, sitting on substantial equity, who needs liquidity faster or more flexibly than a Swiss bank will provide. This is a profile we see regularly, and it is well suited to a bridge.

A Common Swiss Profile

A typical case looks like this. An owner holds a multi-unit residential building, say a dozen apartments, in the centre of a secondary Swiss city. The asset is worth several million francs, carries a long-standing first mortgage at conservative leverage, and produces steady rental income. The owner wants additional capital, to fund another purchase, to carry out works, or to bridge to a programmed sale of individual lots, and wants it without unwinding the whole banking relationship or waiting on a slow refinancing.

The defining features are strong asset coverage, a clear income stream, and a credible exit. Those are exactly the features a bridge lender underwrites.

How These Facilities Are Sized

A portfolio bridge is sized against the value of the assets and, where relevant, the rental income they produce. Because these owners typically hold their stock at low leverage, the combined loan-to-value after a new facility often remains conservative, which gives the lender a comfortable security margin and supports sensible pricing.

Bridge facilities we arrange are typically priced from around 8% per annum, with senior leverage up to around 70% of value. The exact rate and loan-to-value depend on the asset, the location, the term and the borrower profile, and are set by the chosen lender rather than by us. The strength of the rental income and the quality of the exit do real work in shaping where within those ranges a facility lands.

First Charge Only

One point matters more than any other on these transactions: we arrange senior facilities only. We do not place subordinated or second-charge junior debt behind someone else's mortgage.

Where there is already a senior loan in place, the cleanest structure is usually a single first-charge facility that refinances the existing debt and the new requirement together. That keeps the lender in first position, simplifies the security, and avoids the intercreditor complications that come with sitting behind another bank. When an owner asks for a junior top-up behind an existing mortgage, that is a different product, and a different type of lender, from the one we arrange.

Typical Exits

A portfolio bridge is short-term capital, so the exit is underwritten at the outset. Two routes are most common.

The first is a programmed sale of all or part of the stock. Selling apartments individually often realises more than a single block sale, and a bridge gives the owner the time to do that in an orderly way rather than under pressure.

The second is a refinancing, onto a longer-term Swiss facility once a business plan is complete, or once income or values have moved far enough to support it.

A credible, evidenced exit is the first thing a lender looks at. A vague intention to "sell or refinance" is not enough; the bridge has to be repayable on terms the lender can see.

What We Need to Start

For a first view, a short brief is enough: the assets and their location, an estimate of value, the rental income, the existing debt, the amount and term required, and the intended exit. From there we can say quickly whether the profile fits and how we would take it to market. As with all Swiss work, we confirm the Lex Koller position with the borrower's Swiss counsel before issuing terms, though for a Swiss-resident owner this is rarely an obstacle.

Switzerland rewards owners who plan their capital deliberately. A well-structured first-charge bridge, against a sound portfolio with a clear exit, is one of the more straightforward tools for doing exactly that.