The move extends Roma beyond its traditional footing in bridging and development finance, giving the lender a product to sit alongside its existing short-term offer. It is a shift Mortgage Introducer has tracked across the wider specialist market, in reporting on bridging finance shifting towards commercial deals as investors chase higher-yielding, more complex assets.
Michael Allison (pictured top), commercial director at Roma Finance, said the launch reflected the lender’s ambition to support clients across the full length of a deal. “This launch is a natural progression for Roma as we continue to build our market share and long-term lending capability following our agreement with J.P. Morgan,” he said.
“We’ve always focused on supporting our property professionals and investors throughout different stages of their property investment journey, so being able to offer commercial mortgages alongside our bridging and development products strengthens that approach.”
What does this mean for brokers with complex cases?
Allison said the addition was designed to keep clients within Roma’s own product range for longer, rather than referring them elsewhere once a deal moved past the bridging stage. “In practical terms, it means we can stay with customers for longer – whether they’re buying an investment property, running a business from the premises, or working through a more complex structure,” he said. “It’s about keeping things straightforward, staying flexible where we can, and making sure customers have funding options that actually work in the real world.”
To support the new range, Roma set up a dedicated commercial underwriting team earlier this year, aimed at strengthening the lender’s capacity to assess more complex commercial and semi-commercial cases. The build-out mirrors a pattern seen elsewhere in specialist lending, where distribution and underwriting depth have become a differentiator – illustrated by TAB’s recent expansion of specialist lending access through the TMA Mortgage Club panel.