The Myth: A Residential Mortgage Broker Can Handle All Property Finance
Residential mortgage advisers are regulated specialists in consumer lending. Commercial finance, bridging, and development products are entirely different disciplines requiring different expertise and lender relationships.
The UK finance market is broadly split into two worlds: regulated consumer mortgages (your home, buy-to-let through FCA-regulated products) and unregulated commercial finance (bridging, development, commercial mortgages, mezzanine). These require fundamentally different skills, lender networks, and underwriting knowledge.
A residential mortgage adviser who occasionally places a simple BTL is not equipped to structure a £2M ground-up development facility, negotiate a 75% LTGDV with retained interest on a mezzanine tranche, or advise on whether a first-charge bridging loan or a senior/mez split structure produces better returns on a complex mixed-use conversion. Using the wrong type of broker can result in declined applications, suboptimal structures, and deals that simply don't get funded.