Looking ahead to the second half of 2026, Rose is clear about what he expects. Rather than a contraction, he anticipates that prolonged uncertainty will actually attract more investors into the bridging market. “I think it’ll bring more investors to the party,” he says. “I’m not convinced it’ll dry the market up — I think it’ll bring more investors in.”
That optimism is tempered, however, by a more demanding operational environment. The one area where the market upheaval has had a tangible effect is exit planning. With residential term mortgage rates having moved significantly, borrowers who intend to refinance off a bridge onto a longer-term product are asking more questions than they were six months ago — and Rose says brokers need to be prepared for that.
“It’s about covering a broader range of options for clients,” he explains. “With term finance on the investment side, there’s a whole range of different rates and fees involved — it’s quite fluid. So it’s about digging down into the finer points of the different options available to them, coming up with contingency plans based on different market values or rental values of a property, and ensuring there’s another way out.”
Cash reserves must also be verified at the point of application, he adds, rather than assumed. “You don’t want to be scrapping around or having to sell an asset that you’ve picked up, because that defeats the object.”
On the lender side, Rose says the market has remained broadly stable since late February, just before the latest wave of Middle East tensions intensified. Products have held firm, and the lender landscape has, if anything, expanded. But he urges brokers to think carefully about which lenders they route clients to in a time-sensitive environment, noting that price is not the only consideration.