A special type of loan that a building society provides to its clients to finance their housing needs before they qualify for a loan from a building society is called a bridging loan, a building society loan or an intermediate loan.
Why apply for a bridging loan?
A bridging loan is a solution when you are buying your own home but have not fulfilled any of the conditions for a proper loan from a building society.
You may not have deposited a sufficient percentage of the target amount into the account, you haven’t reached the required assessment number, or you’ve been saving for less than 2 years. That’s when an interim loan can help you get the funds quickly to bridge the period between closing and qualifying for a regular loan.
Did you know that there is no legal entitlement and you have to meet the conditions set by the building society to get it? These include:
- Setting up a building society.
- Deposit the required percentage of the target amount into the building savings account.
- Demonstrate sufficient income.
- Obtain the required collateral for the loan. However, some banks also offer a bridging loan without collateral.
When does the bridge loan end?
Did you succeed and the building society approved your bridging loan? At that point, your building society will split into two. You will still have to save, i.e. deposit the agreed amounts into a savings account, but you will also pay interest on the bridging loan.
However, you should be aware that you do not repay any principal as part of the repayments of the bridging loan, so the interest does not reduce over time, nor does the amount owed. You will only repay the bridging loan by taking out a conventional building society loan. Then the principal will start to be repaid and the interest will reduce over time.
