A pathway beyond the bridge
What distinguished the deal was not just its speed, but the structure of the exit. Roma’s commercial mortgage team ran a parallel assessment of the property’s long-term funding potential at the same time as delivering the bridge, giving the borrowers a clear route towards refinancing onto a term product with the same lender, subject to the property meeting the relevant criteria.
Michael Allison (pictured top), commercial director at Roma Finance, said the deal reflected the evolution of Roma’s commercial lending offer. “We have a team with significant experience across commercial property finance, and that allows us to look beyond the immediate funding requirement and understand what the customer is ultimately trying to achieve,” he said.
“With commercial bridging, development finance and now our commercial mortgages sitting under the same umbrella, we’re in a much stronger position to support customers at different stages of their property journey. That’s something we’re really excited about.”The completion follows Roma Finance’s move into longer-term commercial lending earlier this year. The lender launched a commercial mortgage range after securing a forward-flow funding agreement with J.P. Morgan, which unlocked products of up to £2m at lending of up to 70% LTV, with fixed-rate and longer-term options available. The Hatters Square deal marks the first publicly disclosed completion that demonstrates the end-to-end proposition in practice – a short-term bridge delivered with a commercial mortgage assessment running alongside it.
Speed and clarity from day one
Street said the seven-day turnaround was critical to the transaction. “This transaction came together exactly as we had hoped; with speed, clarity, and a lender who understood the opportunity from day one,” he said.
“Roma was able to take a pragmatic approach, understand our respective experiences and delivered the funding in just seven days. That speed made a real difference, and the flexibility of the facility gives us the time we need to build the financial trading data and move towards longer-term funding plans.”
