Bridging trends and opportunities: What brokers need to know for 2026 (Webinar).

For our final webinar of the year, host Michelle Walsh brought together a powerhouse panel from Together, Method Valuation, and Project Chartered Surveyors to tackle the hottest topics and trends in bridging and property finance. Here’s what we covered:

• Bridging market trends: What’s shaping 2026 and beyond?

• Industry shake-ups: From the Renters’ Rights Act to the surge in HMOs, and why commercial investors still have reasons to smile.

• Broker support: How valuation panels like Method make bridging cases smoother.

• Real success stories: How bridging helped Together customers turn property ambitions into reality.

Ready to dive into some of the highlights? Let’s go.

Bridging market research and outlook with Dave Woods

Michelle opened the session by introducing Dave Woods, Product Analytics Manager at Together, who shared insights on the size of the 2025 bridging market, regional hot spots, and how lenders price bridging products.

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Key takeaways:

• Bridging market is estimated between £9 and £10bn, including development finance.

  • Residential bridging is roughly £5bn (comprising £3.5bn of unregulated and £1.7bn of regulated loans).

  • 53% of regulated bridging loans are under £250,000, with another 27% under £500,000.

• Bridging has grown by 8% year on year, with unregulated bridging loans up 14%.

• South West and The Midlands (+20%), Scotland (+31%) and North East (+42%) are the regions that have seen the most growth in bridging finance this year.

• Customers shifting from using a bridging loan to buy and resell a property to buying on a bridge, refurbishing and refinancing in order to hold on to the property for a longer investment.

Trends and opportunities with Andrew Rutter and Colin Horton

Next, Andrew Rutter MRICS (Head of Surveying Services at Method – VM) was joined by Colin Horton of Project Chartered Surveyors for a lively discussion on some of the trends they’d seen in the wider property industry in 2025, and their expectations for the year ahead.

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Property prices

Andrew admitted that the property market has been “subdued” in 2025, highlighting the fact that London and the South East had seen the first fall in monthly property prices for a while in October 2025, and that 34% of all homes on the market had seen a reduction in asking price.

However, northern house prices continue to see a steady annual increase of 2 to 3%, generally going under offer at around 27 days on average (compared to a 39 day average in the South).

Colin agreed on the North / South divide, using his own experiences with properties in London’s commuter belt as an example of the stagnation. He points to valuers taking a more cautionary stance when valuing a property as a contributing factor, indicating that the market is still catching up from COVID when agents were over quoting to win instruction.

“My biggest bug bear as a valuer is when we’re sent “we think it's worth X” and they've based on what they've seen on the market, not what's actually sold. It’s all well and good putting a deal through based on what you think it’s worth but have some substantial evidence to justify it. Otherwise, you’re just going to get a down value, a realistic value, and that’s not good for anyone involved.”

Autumn Budget

When asked how he thought the policies announced in the Autumn Budget would affect the market, Colin said “I think the uncertainty that we had in the preceding two months had a real knock on effect on the market and buyers’ confidence. As it stands, at this time of year as well, it’s historically pretty quiet.”

“I'm hoping now that, because the budget wasn't as bad as I think a lot of people thought, I like to think that that we are slowly now going to start to see a bit more confidence. I think confidence for me is not necessarily price rises. It's just getting that market moving.”

HMOs

Andrew and Colin discussed how, in 2025, HMOs had been good for instructions, with a vast increase for current HMOs or conversions to the property type. Colin discusses how, although he’s not a big fan of HMOs personally, the rise in demand is down to two main drivers:

• Demand from renters who can’t afford to fully rent properties.

• Investors realising the potential to generate profits.

Areas of concern the pair point out for HMOs are on the exit as “it’s very rare you’ll see an HMO sell for anything near what it’s been refinanced at”, and investors not factoring in the increased maintenance costs from damage and deterioration as they’ll “probably have to redo the whole (property)” every 7 or 8 years.

A rising trend in converting HMO rooms into self-contained studio type rooms, with integrated kitchenettes and en-suite facilities, could help to decrease these costs, as well as creating more value, a more secure asset and better rents.

How Method Valuation can support brokers with Stephen Henman

Next, Stephen Henman, Managing Director at Method, discussed how Method Valuation supports brokers by simplifying the valuation process and ensuring speed, reliability, and full UK coverage.

Through its panel management service, Method connects Together and brokers to a network of around 200 approved valuation firms, covering all property types from standard residential and Buy to Lets, to HMOs and complex commercial assets.

This means brokers can source valuations quickly and confidently, knowing every valuer proposed by Method meets Together’s requirements.

The service combines technology and human support to deliver fast turnaround and control. 91% of valuation quotes are returned within four hours, and 93% of reports are delivered within Together’s agreed timescales, which is critical for time-sensitive bridging cases.

Bringing bridging to life with Maeve Ward

To wrap the webinar up, Maeve Ward, Intermediary Sales Director at Together, highlighted two recent cases where bridging finance really made a difference to our customers.

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In the first case, where the customer was let down by another lender at the last minute, Maeve discusses how Together were able to provide a £1.2m unregulated bridging loan in only 2 working days to save the investment purchase.

Maeve’s second case is a situation many people may have found themselves – a devastating chain break threatening to scupper a dream move. But, thanks to a £450,000 regulated bridging loan, cross charged against the existing and new property, our customer was able to prevent the chain break and continue with their purchase with no delay.

You can watch this webinar, and all of our previous webinars, in our dedicated Intermediary Resource Hub, where you’ll also find a wealth of educational content to help you support your clients.

Ready to help your clients move fast?

Bridging finance can be the difference between saving a deal and losing an opportunity, whether it’s breaking a chain, funding a refurbishment, or securing a time-sensitive purchase.

Get in touch with our team today and see how we can help you place even more cases. And keep an eye out for more webinars coming your way in the new year!