The Bridging Finance Exit: Your Lender's Only Real Concern
When you apply for bridging finance, the lender spends approximately 10% of their energy assessing how you'll use the money and 90% stress-testing how you'll repay them. A weak exit strategy is the single most common reason applications are declined.
Bridging lenders are short-term capital providers, not long-term partners. Their risk model centres entirely on exit: are you selling (and is the end buyer finance-ready)? Refinancing (and have you already obtained a Decision in Principle)? Completing a development (and is the GDV evidenced by a comparable sold-prices analysis)? Applications that present a vague 'I'll refinance eventually' exit are declined or priced with punishing default-rate clauses. Presenting a lender with a fully documented exit strategy — ideally with a DIP letter from the refinance lender attached — transforms approval probability.