Both are secured on commercial property. Both can fund a purchase. In almost every other respect they are different products, and the choice between them is usually decided by time rather than by cost.
The short version
A commercial mortgage is a long-term facility, repaid over years from trading income or rent. A bridge is a short-term facility, repaid in months from a defined event.
If you intend to hold the property and pay for it out of what it earns, you want a mortgage. If you need to own it before you can arrange that, you may need a bridge first.
When a bridge is the right answer
Usually when the timetable will not accommodate a mortgage. An auction purchase completes in twenty-eight days; a commercial mortgage rarely does.
- Auction purchases, where the completion date is fixed and short.
- A property that is not currently mortgageable — no kitchen, no bathroom, or a use class that needs changing — where the works make it lendable.
- A chain that has broken and a deadline that has not moved.
- Buying out a partner or settling a liability where the deadline is external.
When it is not
If nothing about the case is time-critical and the property is already lettable or tradeable, a bridge is an expensive way to arrive at a mortgage you could have arranged directly.
It is also the wrong answer when the exit is vague. "We will refinance at some point" is not an exit, and a lender charging short-term money against an undefined repayment route is a risk to both sides.
The pattern to look for
Bridge then refinance is a legitimate and common structure: buy quickly, make the property lendable, then move onto a term facility. What matters is that both halves are planned at the outset, and that somebody has checked you would actually qualify for the second one.
This article explains how these products generally work. It is not advice, and it does not take account of your circumstances. Any figures are indicative market ranges at the time of writing rather than an offer. Speak to an adviser before acting on anything here.
