Catalyst Property Finance
A short-term property lender with £750m of committed institutional capacity, writing £100k to £20m of bridging, refurbishment, development exit and ground-up finance in England and Wales.
What they do
Catalyst lends from three institutional wholesale lines committed over three years, giving aggregate capacity of around £750m. Bridging starts at 0.65 per cent a month on a first charge, commercial bridging is priced as a tracker at 7.5 per cent over base and ground-up development at 5.25 per cent over base, with serviced, retained or blended interest and no exit fee. Leverage runs to 80 per cent of market value on bridging and refurbishment and 85 per cent of cost on development. The new business team responds within four working hours, and every development case has a named manager and underwriter throughout.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Published tracker pricing is unusual in bridging and makes the cost predictable as base rates move. A £3m to £15m requirement is comfortably inside the bridging and refurbishment range, and development exit finance is available for schemes that are built and selling. The four-hour response commitment is a real differentiator when a purchase is on a clock.
Where they are not the fit
Ground-up development caps at £5m and at schemes of up to twenty units, well below the bridging ceiling. Scotland and Northern Ireland are excluded. Terms run one to twenty-four months and a clear exit is required before anything is underwritten.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Bridging from 0.65% per month (first charge). Commercial bridging priced tracker BBR + 7.50% p.a.; ground-up development tracker BBR + 5.25% p.a. Serviced, retained or blended interest; no early repayment charges
- Speed to terms
- Positions on speed; New Business Team responds within 4 working hours. Specific speed-to-offer in days not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Property-backed lending to developers, investors and SPVs (corporate/SPV borrowers). No private-equity sponsor leverage lending; property security is the basis, not cash-flow/EBITDA
- Where they lend
- England and Wales only. No Scotland or Northern Ireland
- How they decide
- Direct-to-lender and broker-introduced. Every development application handled end-to-end by a dedicated BDM and underwriter. Requires a clear repayment/exit strategy. Ex-intermediary founder-led credit culture
As published by the lender and last reviewed August 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
The desks that lend
Catalyst Property Finance lends through 5 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether Catalyst Property Finance lends, but which of these would own it.
Short term bridging loans (first charge, incl. commercial bridging)
- Facility
- £100k to £20m
- Security
- First-charge secured on property (residential, commercial, mixed-use, land). Accepts most property types including vacant commercial, care homes, rural and quirky assets, with or without planning or income
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Property security required; England and Wales only (no Scotland or Northern Ireland); Short-term only (1 to 24 months); Clear exit/repayment strategy required
Commercial bridging finance
- Facility
- £250k to £10m
- Security
- First-charge secured on commercial property. Up to 70% of 180-day value. Priced tracker BBR + 7.50% p.a. (fixed available by request); serviced, retained or blended interest
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Property security required; England and Wales only; 70% of 180-day value loan to value cap; 3 to 24 month term
Refurbishment finance
- Facility
- up to £20m
- Security
- First-charge secured on property. Light to heavy refurbishment; up to 80% OMV
- Funds
- Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Property security required; England and Wales only
Ground up development finance
- Facility
- £250k to £5m
- Security
- First-charge secured on development site. Up to 85% loan-to-cost and up to 65% loan-to-GDV; residential and mixed-use schemes up to 20 units. Planning uplift considered as equity. Priced tracker BBR + 5.25% p.a.
- Funds
- Growth
- Rules out
- Property security required; England and Wales only; Schemes up to 20 units; Max £5m ticket on development
Development exit finance
- Facility
- up to £20m
- Security
- First-charge secured on completing/completed development. Refinances existing development loans; finish-and-exit up to c.10% of OMV additional
- Funds
- Refinance
- Rules out
- Property security required; England and Wales only
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from Catalyst Property Finance’s own published criteria, beyond the ones each desk carries above. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- No appetite in not property-secured lending or unsecured lending
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £20m; 35 of the 75 property-backed lenders here go at least as high.
- 65 of the 75 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
- It lends through 5 distinct desks, where most firms here run one or two.
Counted across the 75 property-backed lenders in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Catalyst Property Finance write?
Published facilities reach £20m, and the bottom of the published range is small-ticket business rather than a corporate facility. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
How quickly does Catalyst Property Finance move?
Positions on speed; New Business Team responds within 4 working hours. Specific speed-to-offer in days not published. Published timetables describe a clean case; anything unusual in the security or the structure adds to them.
Where does Catalyst Property Finance lend?
Catalyst Property Finance lends in England and Wales only. No Scotland or Northern Ireland.
On the record
March 2026: Launched Ground Up Development Finance at BBR + 5.25%, £250k-£5m, residential/mixed-use up to 20 units, England and Wales (institutional development funding.
2024: Extended three funding lines to £750m aggregate capacity via an institutional-grade US credit platform; cumulative lending over £600m since 2017.
July 2025: Acquired by The FHL Group (sister of Foundation Home Loans); continues as separate brand.
Sources: catalystpf.co.uk
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.