Commercial Mortgages Brighton
Up to 75% LTV - Blended cover

Semi-Commercial Mortgage Brighton

Single-facility finance for property where the residential element is at least 40% of total floorspace: the shop-with-flat archetype that defines Brighton's inner parades. Up to 75% loan-to-value, blended cover around 145%, interest rates 6.5 to 8.5% pa, 5 to 25 year repayment terms. Active across Kemptown F&B above shops on St James's Street, Seven Dials, London Road parade and Western Road in Hove.

LTV

Up to 75%

Rate

From 6.5% pa

Term

5 to 25 years

Blended cover

~145%

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Defining mixed-use property: when does semi-commercial pricing apply?

Semi-commercial finance is a single facility funding mixed-use property, typically a commercial unit on the ground floor with one or more self-contained residential flats above. Where the residential element is at least 40% of total floorspace, semi-commercial pricing applies (instead of pure commercial investment pricing). Where residential is below 40%, lenders treat it as commercial investment and price accordingly.

The lending test combines the commercial rent and the residential AST income on a blended basis, with a typical cover requirement around 145%. Lenders take comfort from the residential security: a flat above is easier to re-let than a vacant retail unit if the commercial side falls vacant, so semi-commercial routinely prices 50 to 100bps inside pure commercial investment. Loan-to-value to 75% is achievable on standard Brighton archetypes via specialist desks; Brighton valuers can trend conservative on the commercial slice on tourism-led streets where rents have been volatile, which sometimes caps the achievable LTV below the headline.

Specialist lenders dominate this market. InterBay Commercial (OSB Group) and Shawbrook are the two most active named desks; LendInvest and Cynergy Bank also run active programmes for Brighton semi-commercial deals between £250K and £2.5M. HTB (Hampshire Trust Bank), Allica Bank and Together engage actively across the South Coast on semi-commercial parade stock. Limited company SPV structures are standard; individual investor and LLP variations are equally accommodated.

Regulation matters here. Most semi-commercial lending is unregulated commercial: the borrower is a limited company or investor, the residential flats are let on ASTs to third parties. The exception: where the borrower (or an immediate family member) will personally occupy one of the flats, the deal can fall into FCA-regulated mortgage rules and routes to a regulated commercial lender. Stamp duty land tax follows non-residential rates on the whole property where commercial use is genuinely incidental, which is materially cheaper than residential SDLT and is part of why investors favour the structure. Indicative case seed: a St James's Street parade unit with three flats above at £850K, blended rent £52K pa, structured at 70% LTV (£595K facility) with InterBay Commercial or Shawbrook at around 7.0% pa.

Underwriting steps for a Brighton shop-and-flats deal

1. Tenancy and split review

We check residential and commercial floorspace split, leases on the commercial side, ASTs on the residential side, tenant covenant on each.

2. Indicative terms in 48 hours

Three to four specialist semi-commercial lenders quoted: interest rate, loan-to-value, term, fees.

3. Credit pack

Lease pack, AST pack, property file, borrower SPV (or individual) pack. InterBay Commercial and Shawbrook want clean tenancy evidence.

4. RICS Red Book valuation

Separates commercial value, residential value and total. Estimated rental value on the commercial unit important to the cover test.

5. Credit approval

Specialist desks typically approve in 1 to 2 weeks post-valuation.

6. Legal completion and SDLT

Standard mixed-use conveyancing. Stamp duty at non-residential rates applies on the whole. 3 to 5 weeks typical.

Buyer profiles for the Brighton shop-with-flat archetype

  • Investors buying classic shop-with-flat-above stock on St James's Street, Seven Dials and London Road
  • Western Road and George Street Hove investors with upper-floor residential above ground-floor retail or professional services
  • Limited company SPV landlords refinancing Brighton semi-commercial holdings off maturing 5-year fixes
  • Portfolio investors with a mix of pure commercial and semi-commercial assets across the BN postcodes
  • Brighton F&B operators with owner-occupier flat above (where the operator lives in the flat)
  • Mixed-use conversion deals where consent is for ground-floor retail plus four to six flats above (London Road regen, Kemptown)
  • First-time semi-commercial investors moving up from a residential buy-to-let portfolio
  • Retiring landlords selling individual semi-commercial assets to incoming Brighton portfolio investors

Active Brighton semi-commercial parades and lender behaviour

Semi-commercial is a deep, active product across Brighton. The classic inner parades, St James's Street in Kemptown (BN2), Seven Dials in BN1, the London Road parade in BN1 and the Western Road retail strip in Hove (BN3), run on shop-with-flat-above stock backed by exceptionally durable residential demand from the combined ~37,000-student economy at the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex, plus the NHS workforce around the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the wider Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals Trust. Lot sizes are typically £400K to £1.2M for a single parade unit, often £1.4M+ for a four-unit run with multiple flats above. Gross blended yields run close to the regional UK average given Brighton's strong residential demand: typically 6.0 to 7.5% blended in central BN1 and BN3, slightly wider in BN2 Kemptown and the London Road parade. The Kemptown sub-market is distinctive: independent F&B and retail operators with long trading history sit alongside high-demand HMO and student residential lets, producing reliable blended income. Recent change-of-use cases (Kemptown retail-to-restaurant conversions, central listed-building conversions retaining ground-floor retail) are typical Brighton semi-commercial profiles. Lender appetite is strong: InterBay Commercial, Shawbrook, LendInvest and Cynergy Bank all actively quote on Brighton semi-commercial deals; HTB, Allica Bank and Together engage actively across the South Coast.

Semi-Commercial Mortgage FAQs

Mixed-use property where the residential element is typically 40% or more of total floorspace. Below 40% residential, lenders treat it as pure commercial investment (and price it accordingly). The valuer measures GIA (gross internal area) on each element and the lender takes the split as evidence.
InterBay Commercial, Shawbrook, LendInvest and Cynergy Bank lead on the specialist side. Each has a slightly different LTV, covenant and minimum-loan profile. HTB (Hampshire Trust Bank), Allica Bank and Together engage actively across the South Coast. Interest rates from 6.5% pa for clean stock.
Yes, InterBay Commercial and Shawbrook routinely quote 75% LTV on standard shop-with-flat archetypes. The blended cover test must still pass at 145%+; if rents are tight, LTV gets capped by the cover test rather than the headline maximum. Brighton valuers also occasionally cap LTV at 70% on parades with thin or volatile comparable evidence.
Generally unregulated. Semi-commercial lending against let mixed-use property sits outside the Financial Conduct Authority's regulated mortgage perimeter: the borrower is a limited company or investor and the residential flats are let on ASTs to third parties. We do not hold FCA authorisation because the products we arrange are unregulated. The exception: where the borrower or an immediate family member will personally occupy one of the residential flats, the deal can fall into the regulated perimeter; in that case we refer to a regulated firm.
Stamp duty land tax follows non-residential rates on a genuinely mixed-use property: 0% to £150K, 2% £150K to £250K, 5% above. On an £850K St James's Street shop-with-three-flats purchase the SDLT bill is around £32,000. That is materially cheaper than the residential SDLT (with the 3% additional-property surcharge) that would apply to a pure residential equivalent: one of the structural reasons investors favour semi-commercial.
Yes, limited company SPV is the standard structure for new semi-commercial acquisitions across Brighton. Specialist desks like InterBay Commercial are entirely comfortable with new SPV borrowers (with director personal guarantee). Existing trading limited companies, LLPs and individual investors are equally accommodated.

Other Development Finance Services

Owner-Occupier

Investment

Portfolio Refinance

Trading Business

Remortgage

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