Property type: Office
Office Property Bridging Loans Berkshire
We arrange bridging finance against office property across the Berkshire tech-corridor and Thames Valley office market, from the Reading station business district through the Slough Bath Road belt, the Bracknell Lexicon regeneration area, the Maidenhead Crossrail zone, and out to Newbury, Wokingham and Theale. 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 office-to-resi conversion rather than vanilla investment hold.
- Decisions in hours
- Completion in days
- £100k to £25m
- Berkshire specialists
Berkshire · Berkshire
Bridge to your next move.
The asset class
What office property looks like in Berkshire.
Office stock across Berkshire ranges from Grade A floors around Reading station and the Thames Valley Park campus, through to the 1980s and 1990s business-park stock at Green Park, Arlington Business Park, Foundation Park Maidenhead and the Newbury Business Park, through to converted Edwardian terraced offices around Castle Hill in Maidenhead and the older Reading streets. The market is bifurcated. Well-located, well-specced floors near station access let well, often to tech-corridor and professional-services occupiers. Secondary blocks have struggled with hybrid working and many are candidates for residential conversion under Class MA permitted development or full planning. 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 1990s block, refurbishes the common parts and the floors, and re-lets at a higher tone. The second is change-of-use to residential under Class MA permitted development, which has driven a large share of the office bridging book in Maidenhead, Bracknell, Slough and Reading for the last several years. 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.
Berkshire context
The Berkshire Office Market: Thames Valley Tech Corridor and Crossrail Catchment
Berkshire office demand sits on top of an economy that is materially different from most of the South East. The Thames Valley tech corridor runs through the county along the M4: Microsoft UK at Thames Valley Park in Reading, Oracle at the Thames Valley campus, Cisco UK at Bracknell, Hitachi Europe at Maidenhead, Vodafone's UK headquarters at Newbury, plus the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston on the western fringe and the defence-research and aerospace supply chains that sit around it. Reading station became the southern terminus of the Elizabeth line in 2022, and the Class MA office-to-residential pipeline around the station has been a steady source of bridging cases through 2024, 2025 and into 2026. Slough's Bath Road business district runs the largest single concentration of corporate-services office stock outside central London, supported by Heathrow proximity and the Slough Trading Estate workforce. Bracknell's Lexicon and town-centre regeneration anchors a steady office occupier base for tech, IT-services and Defence Equipment and Support tier-one suppliers. Maidenhead carries a strong Crossrail-driven occupier story with Hitachi anchoring the larger blocks. Newbury sits on the Vodafone HQ campus and the broader telecoms supply chain. The University of Reading and Royal Berkshire Hospital add a research-and-life-sciences spillover into the smaller office stock. For a bridging case, the relevant point is that office demand in Berkshire is driven by software, telecoms, defence-tech, life-sciences and corporate-services tenancy rather than by the speculative creative-and-media demand that drives parts of central London. Lenders who understand this price the asset correctly. Lenders who do not, price as if it were any other South East secondary 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 Berkshire 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 an office to residential conversion in Berkshire?
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Yes. Office-to-residential conversions under Class MA permitted development and under full planning have been a steady part of the Berkshire bridging book since the 2021 expansion of permitted-development rights. 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. The Maidenhead, Bracknell and Slough town-centre pipelines have been particularly active, with the Reading station Class MA stock coming through more recently. Article 4 directions apply in parts of the county, so we check the planning position before going to lender, and we work with planning consultants who know the local authority position 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 Thames Valley tech-corridor tenants?
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Yes, and the named-bridging lenders are comfortable with the Berkshire occupier profile. Microsoft UK, Oracle, Cisco, Hitachi, Vodafone, the broader telecoms and software supply chain, and the Defence Equipment and Support tier-one suppliers are all recognised covenants. Lenders price for unexpired lease term, break clauses and any group-guarantee structure, with the strongest cases sitting at 65 to 70% LTV and the lower end at 60%. The presence of the tech corridor along the M4 between Reading and Maidenhead is generally seen as a stabilising factor for office demand across the county.
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 Berkshire or across Berkshire.
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 Berkshire office bridging specialist.
We arrange short-term finance on office property across Berkshire, the six Berkshire unitary authorities (Reading, West Berkshire, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Slough, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead) and the wider Berkshire market. Indicative terms in 24 hours.