Second-Charge Commercial Mortgage Bournemouth
Subordinated commercial debt sitting behind your existing first-charge mortgage, secured against the same property. Keep the legacy interest rate and avoid breaking ERCs while raising £100K to £2M. Combined loan-to-value to 70 to 75%, interest rates 10 to 14% pa, 5 to 25 year repayment terms. Active across capital raise on BCP holiday-let portfolios (Westbourne, Boscombe, Southbourne and Christchurch coastal stock) and central commercial freehold equity release on Lansdowne, Westover Road and Old Christchurch Road stock.
Combined LTV
Up to 75%
Rate
10 to 14% pa
Term
5 to 25 years
Facility
£100K to £2M
What does sitting behind a senior commercial lender actually mean?
A second-charge commercial mortgage sits behind your existing first-charge facility, secured against the same property. The senior lender retains priority on the asset; the second-charge lender takes a subordinated position, meaning that in any default scenario, the senior gets repaid in full before the second-charge sees a penny. You keep the existing senior facility intact (and its interest rate) while raising additional debt against the same security.
The use case is narrow but valuable. Typically: your existing first charge is on a competitive legacy interest rate (3.5 to 4.5% from the 2019 to 2021 era) with significant ERCs to break; you need to raise £200K to £2M for working capital, business growth, partner buy-out, deposit on the next holiday-let acquisition or onward expansion of a Bournemouth portfolio; refinancing the whole stack would cost more than the second-charge route. Run the maths and second-charge often wins on a 3-year horizon, particularly where the legacy rate has 18+ months left to run.
It is a smaller, more specialist market than first-charge. InterBay Commercial, LendInvest and select private-credit desks are the active second-charge commercial lenders for the Bournemouth market. Paragon and Together engage on second-charge against HMO portfolios; Cumberland Building Society and Hodge occasionally engage on second-charge against holiday-let portfolios where they hold the senior. Pricing reflects the subordinated risk profile: 10 to 14% pa typically, with arrangement fees of 2 to 3%. Combined loan-to-value (first charge plus second charge) usually capped at 70 to 75% on owner-occupier and standard investment, occasionally flexed to 80% on strong covenant cases; BCP lenders read combined LTV carefully on holiday-let portfolio stock where covenant rests on booking seasonality and on concentrated central retail blocks where the cover test is more sensitive to void exposure.
Most second-charge commercial lending is taken out by a limited company trading entity or SPV with director personal guarantee, and is unregulated commercial lending, not a residential mortgage. The senior lender has to consent to the second charge being registered (a deed of consent at typically £500 to £2K is standard); some clearing bank commercial desks refuse on policy grounds, in which case the route is closed and refinancing the whole stack is the only option. Stamp duty does not apply on a second-charge (no transfer of ownership). Repayment is on a standard amortising basis or, occasionally, interest-only with a balloon at year 5; we structure based on the cash-flow profile of the underlying business. Indicative case seed: a BCP holiday-let operator running a six-unit coastal portfolio across Westbourne (BH4), Boscombe (BH5) and Southbourne (BH6) with a £1.6M legacy first charge at 4.0% (2.5 years left to run) raises £580K of equity via a second-charge at 12% pa to fund the next coastal holiday-let acquisition, without disturbing the cheap senior.
Process: from senior consent to subordinated drawdown
1. Combined-LTV review
Current first-charge balance, current property valuation, target combined loan-to-value. Most second-charges sit at 70 to 75% combined.
2. First-charge consent check
Existing senior lender must consent to the second charge being registered. Some refuse on policy; most allow with a deed of consent fee.
3. Indicative terms in 48 hours
From two to three specialist subordinated desks. Interest rate, LTV, term, fees, conditions.
4. Credit pack
Standard commercial credit pack plus first-charge documentation. Lenders want clarity on the priority position and any cross-default clauses in the senior.
5. Valuation and intercreditor
RICS Red Book valuation. Deed of priority or intercreditor agreement between senior and second-charge lenders. Adds 1 to 2 weeks versus first-charge process.
6. Completion and drawdown
Funds drawn. First-charge facility unaffected. 5 to 7 weeks total typical from indicative to drawdown.
Profiles where keeping the senior intact is the right call
- BCP holiday-let portfolio operators raising acquisition capital on coastal stock across Westbourne (BH4), Boscombe (BH5), Southbourne (BH6) and Christchurch (BH23) without disturbing competitive legacy first charges
- Central freehold owners on Lansdowne (BH1), Westover Road (BH1 / BH2), Old Christchurch Road central (BH1) and the Citrus Building / Winter Gardens stock executing equity release without breaking a cheap senior
- West Cliff (BH2 / BH4) and East Cliff (BH1) heritage hotel freehold owners releasing equity for partner buy-out or onward acquisition
- Talbot Village HMO portfolio operators raising deposit capital for the next conversion through the BCP Council planning pipeline
- Borrowers with a competitive legacy first-charge interest rate they cannot afford to break
- Trading-business owners raising working capital secured against owner-occupied Bournemouth premises
- Operators with significant ERCs on existing facility making full refinancing uneconomic
- Asset-rich borrowers with cashflow pressure needing capital release without facility break
When subordinated debt is doing real work in the Bournemouth market
InterBay Commercial, LendInvest and select private-credit desks are the active second-charge commercial lenders for Bournemouth, with Paragon and Together engaging on the HMO portfolio side and Cumberland Building Society and Hodge occasionally engaging on holiday-let portfolio second-charges where they hold the senior. The product sees most use on two distinct Bournemouth profiles. First, capital raise on BCP holiday-let portfolios: an operator running a five-or-six-unit coastal short-let book across Westbourne, Boscombe, Southbourne and the Christchurch fringe needs equity for the next acquisition, refurbishment programme, or onward expansion through the deep BCP holiday-let pipeline. The second-charge route preserves the original cheap rate against an asset where refinancing the whole stack would trip break costs that outweigh the rate saving. Given the BCP catchment's c. 5M visitor nights per year and one of the largest seaside conference economies in the UK at the Bournemouth International Centre, the holiday-let portfolio second-charge is one of the deepest specialist drivers in this network. Second, central commercial freehold equity release: an asset-rich owner of a Lansdowne Grade B office, Westover Road retail, Old Christchurch Road central, Citrus Building or West Cliff / East Cliff heritage hotel freehold raises capital for business growth without breaking the senior. Combined first plus second LTV usually capped at 70 to 75% on owner-occupier; investment assets sometimes flex to 80% combined, with BCP lenders weighing combined LTV carefully on holiday-let portfolio stock where covenant rests on booking seasonality. On a £1.8M owner-occupied Lansdowne professional services freehold with a £750K legacy first charge at 4% (with 3 years left), a £540K second-charge at 12% costs less in absolute terms than a full refinancing of the £1.29M total at 7.5% with a £36K ERC, by around £22K over three years. We run the same comparison for BCP holiday-let portfolio operators, central freehold owners and Westbourne semi-commercial investors before recommending. See also our commercial remortgage route where the whole-stack refinancing actually beats the second-charge maths.
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