MSP Capital
A Dorset principal lending since 1981 with £485m of capacity from JP Morgan, Pollen Street and Shawbrook, writing £100k to £20m of development and bridging finance.
What they do
MSP Capital has lent for forty-five years and does everything in house: underwriting, credit, valuation, surveying and legal, with decisions taken directly rather than referred to a committee. Development finance is priced from 0.80 per cent a month to 70 per cent of gross development value, bridging from 0.75 per cent to 75 per cent loan to value, and auction finance from 0.54 per cent, with pre-agreed credit lines available to £20m. Credit-backed approval comes within 24 hours of enquiry and auction cases complete inside the 28-day deadline. The book is strongest across southern England and expanding nationally.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Pre-agreed credit lines are the standout: a developer can have facilities approved before finding the site, which turns a competitive purchase into a cash-equivalent bid. Institutional funding of £485m behind a lender that keeps valuation and legal work in house is an unusual combination of certainty and speed at lower-mid-market scale.
Where they are not the fit
Lending is England and Wales only, with southern England the historical strength. Occupied properties and primary residences are excluded, and there are age limits on individual borrowers. Everything is secured on property rather than on trading earnings.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Development finance from 0.80%/month (96 bps/month, ~11.5% p.a.) up to 70% loan to gross development value; bridging from 0.75%/month (75 bps/month, ~9% p.a.) up to 75% loan to value; auction finance from 0.54%/month (54 bps/month) up to 70% loan to value.
- Speed to terms
- Credit-backed within 24 hours of enquiry; drawdown within days if legal and valuation processes move quickly; auction finance drawdown within 28 days to meet auction deadlines
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Corporate/developer appetite only - product set is entirely property developer-facing. No private equity/sponsor-backed corporate lending
- Where they lend
- England and Wales. Headquartered in Poole, Dorset (South Coast); historically strongest in Southern England ('one of Southern England's largest property finance providers'); expanding to national coverage via broker partnerships per CEO.
- How they decide
- Principal lender with in-house underwriting, credit, valuation, surveying and legal. Decisions made directly with decision-makers (no committee referral). Credit-backed approval within 24 hours of initial enquiry. Authority is delegated below committee on at least part of the book
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
MSP Capital 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 MSP Capital lends, but which of these would own it.
Development finance
- Facility
- £100k to £10m
- Security
- First-charge property; up to 70% loan to gross development value; up to 100% of build costs subject to viability
- Funds
- Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Primary residence; Borrower under 21 or over 75
Bridging finance
- Facility
- £100k to £10m
- Security
- First-charge property; up to 75% loan to value
- Funds
- Acquisition · Refinance
- Rules out
- Primary residence; Borrower under 21 or over 75
Auction finance bridging
- Facility
- £100k to £10m
- Security
- First-charge property; up to 70% loan to value; single property max value £3m
- Funds
- Acquisition
- Rules out
- Primary residence
Development exit bridging
- Facility
- £100k to £5m
- Security
- First-charge property; up to 70% loan to value; max single property £1.5m; properties at practical completion, vacant
- Funds
- Refinance
- Rules out
- Occupied properties; Primary residence
Pre-agreed credit lines
- Facility
- up to £20m
- Security
- First-charge property; for repeat/successive projects
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
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 MSP Capital 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 MSP Capital move?
Credit-backed within 24 hours of enquiry; drawdown within days if legal and valuation processes move quickly; auction finance drawdown within 28 days to meet auction deadlines. Published timetables describe a clean case; anything unusual in the security or the structure adds to them.
Where does MSP Capital lend?
England and Wales. Headquartered in Poole, Dorset (South Coast); historically strongest in Southern England ('one of Southern England's largest property finance providers'); expanding to national coverage via broker partnerships per CEO.
On the record
May 2025: £350m funding facility agreed with JP Morgan (£200m senior) and Pollen Street Capital (£150m); total capacity £485m rising to £835m (source: alternativecreditinvestor.com.
November 2025: Rate cut — bridging to 0.75%/month, development to 0.80%/month (source: bridgingandcommercial.co.uk.
April 2025: Leigh Bartlett appointed CEO (replacing joint MDs Martin Higgins and Paul Miracca) (source: theintermediary.co.uk.
July 2023: Philip George (Shawbrook co-founder) appointed Non-Executive Director (source: bridgingandcommercial.co.uk.
Sources: mspcapital.co.uk · bridgingandcommercial.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.