A principal lender says education, not selling, is what the bridging sector needs most
The UK bridging market is undergoing a structural shift that mirrors the early professionalisation of the wider mortgage industry, and brokers who fail to keep up with its growing complexity risk leaving their clients underserved.
That is the view of Steve Barber (pictured top), managing director of Bridging Finance Solutions, who founded the firm two decades ago and has watched short-term lending evolve from a product of last resort into a mainstream component of professional property finance.
"Twenty years ago, it was probably seen as lender of last resort," Barber told Mortgage Introducer. "It's now far more mainstream. The sector still retains a stigma, but the reality is that it is now far more mainstream."
The comments come as new data from the Bridging & Development Lenders Association (BDLA) confirmed completions across the UK bridging sector fell to £1.8 billion in Q1 2026, down from £2.5 billion in Q4 2025, according to the BDLA's quarterly lending data survey compiled by independent auditors. Applications also declined, from £11.7 billion to £9.9 billion over the same period.
Is the Q1 dip a bridging problem or a market problem?
Barber said the Q1 softening was not a cause for structural concern but a reflection of broader economic conditions affecting property finance transactions in aggregate. The key, he explained, lies in how bridging lenders assess viability before they lend.
"Bridging lenders underwrite backwards from exit," he said. "So they've got to be able to see there's a tangible exit before they'll lend in the first place. And if the long-term market has tightened, obviously it's harder to evidence where the exit is coming from."
He also pointed out the BDLA figures do not capture the full scale of private bridging activity. A significant volume of short-term property lending takes place between individuals and through solicitors, entirely outside the formal data sets. "Nobody's ever measured it, but you could comfortably say it's the size of all the bridging lenders who report to the BDLA combined again," Barber said. "And of course, their stats don't reflect that because there's no governance in the market at all."
Geographically, Barber noted Bridging Finance Solutions’ own pipeline told a more nuanced story than the headline figures suggest. "We saw a lot less transactions in the south east, but a lot more transactions in the north," he said, adding that one quarter is too short a period to draw firm conclusions about regional trends.
What does market maturity mean for brokers?
Barber's central argument is the bridging market is following the same trajectory as the mortgage market did in the early 1990s, fragmenting into specialist niches defined by deal size, geography, property type, and borrower credit profile. For brokers, that specialisation creates both an opportunity and an obligation.
"Where the brokers will score is when they get a case and put a round peg in a round hole," he said. "So they know exactly that lender will do this deal because it's this size, this kind of property, it's here."
He is equally direct about the gap in broker knowledge that still persists. Many advisers continue to view bridging as a narrow tool – useful for chain-breaking or auction purchases – when the product's genuine range of applications is considerably wider.
"Bridging doesn't just cover buying property at auction and refurbing and all those classic uses," Barber said. "It covers things like probate funding, it covers things like paying tax bills, it covers things like raising cash on a property whilst a long-term funder puts a mortgage through or the property sells. There's all sorts of use cases that not a lot of brokers are aware of."
For Barber, the response is straightforward. "To me, it's all about education and ensuring that brokers are fully conversant to the circumstances at which they can use it to help their clients."
Will consolidation reshape the bridging lender landscape?
Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, Barber is cautiously optimistic but flags concern about competitive dynamics at the risk end of the market. Specialist brokers have reported strong pipelines despite the Q1 figures, pointing to bridging's role as an alternative when mainstream lending cannot deliver the required speed or flexibility.
"I think there's a lot of froth in the market," Barber said. "There's more money than deals in certain places in the country – London certainly. And there are new lenders who are coming to market who are having to differentiate themselves by going up the risk curve, and I think that's quite dangerous."
He expects consolidation to follow. "There will be some consolidation in the market because there's just too many lenders at the moment and the market will automatically correct itself."
As a privately funded, principal lender, Bridging Finance Solutions is insulated from some of the volume pressures that affect wholesale-funded competitors. "We are more selective because we tend to be more quality driven than volume driven," Barber said. "I'm not saying either business model is right or wrong, they're just different."
Having navigated four market cycles since founding the business, Barber retains long-term conviction. "Whether you're in a rising market or a falling market, there is always the opportunity for fast entrepreneurial property funding," he said. "It's just used for different things in a rising and falling market."
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