Short-term bridging loans, borrowed for weeks not years

Vortex Finance arranges short-term bridging through a panel of 100+ lenders. Indicative terms come back within 24 hours. The loan is interest-only, priced on the property and your exit, and most lenders charge no early repayment penalty once you pass a short minimum term. No fee to find out where you stand.

We are a broker, not a lender. We sit on your side of the table and shop the market to find the route that fits the length of your hold, not a product designed to keep you borrowing.

What short-term bridging is for

Short-term bridging is property-secured finance for a defined, short period with a clear exit. It is the right tool when you know roughly when the money comes back and you only need to cover the days in between.

The point of difference from a longer bridge is intent. You are not parking debt for a year. You are covering a short, identifiable window, and you want the structure to reflect that.

How short you can borrow, and the minimum term

Short-term bridging runs from a few months up to 12 months on regulated cases and up to 24 months on unregulated ones. At the short end, the loan is built for holds measured in weeks.

Most lenders apply a minimum term, often 1 to 3 months of interest. That protects the lender on a deal that might redeem in days. In practice it means you pay for a short minimum period even if your exit completes faster, so the realistic floor on a very quick deal is usually one to three months of interest, not less.

This matters when you cost the deal. If your exit completes in three weeks but the minimum term is two months, budget for two months of interest. We flag the minimum term up front so the total cost is clear before you commit. Every figure here is indicative; the lender confirms on application.

Early repayment with no penalty

The feature that makes short-term bridging suit short holds is the redemption structure. Most bridging is interest-only with no early repayment charge after the minimum term. You redeem when your exit completes and you stop paying interest from that point.

That is the opposite of a term mortgage, where an early repayment charge can run into thousands during the fixed period. Some bridging lenders apply a small exit fee instead, often 0% to 1% of the loan, and many waive it entirely. We compare the redemption terms, not just the headline rate, because on a short hold the exit cost can matter more than the monthly figure.

Indicative rates and total cost over a short hold

Indicative monthly interest sits around 0.55% to 0.95% on most cases, with the cleanest low-LTV, clean-exit deals nearer 0.44%. On top sit a lender arrangement fee of 1% to 2%, a RICS valuation fee, and legal costs. Our fee model is confirmed upfront before any application, disclosed in writing before you commit.

Judge short-term bridging on total cost over your actual term, not the monthly rate in isolation. A worked example, indicative only: borrow £300,000 at 0.75% per month for two months. Interest is roughly £4,500. Add a 1.5% arrangement fee of £4,500, plus valuation and legals. Against a deal that secures or completes a purchase worth far more, that cost is small and finite. The lender confirms the exact figures on application after it sees the property and your file.

Choosing the right exit

Lenders price short-term bridging on the strength and certainty of your exit, so a clean, evidenced exit gets a sharper rate. The three common exits are a sale completing, a term mortgage or remortgage funding, or an asset maturing.

The safest exits are the ones already in motion. A sale with a buyer and a contract is stronger than a hoped-for sale. A mortgage offer in hand is stronger than an application in progress. We stress-test your exit before submission, because a short-term loan whose exit slips becomes an expensive problem. If the exit looks thin, we tell you before you borrow, not after.