Commercial Mortgages City of London
The City of London is 1.12 square miles, 8,583 residents at the 2021 census and more than 500,000 people at work. It is not a London borough and it is not London. It is a separate entity governed by the City of London Corporation, and it holds the largest concentration of office floorspace in the country. We arrange commercial mortgages across EC2, EC3 and EC4 on let offices, street-level retail, hotels and the professional firms buying the floors they already occupy.
A commercial mortgage in City of London is long-term secured debt against business premises, underwritten on rental cover, trading profit or EBITDA depending on how the property is held. Commercial Mortgages London is a specialist commercial mortgage broker arranging owner-occupier, investment, semi-commercial and trading-business mortgages across City of London.
Main postcodes: EC1A, EC2M, EC2N, EC2R, EC2V, EC2Y, EC3A, EC3M, EC3N, EC3R, EC3V, EC4A, EC4M, EC4N, EC4R, EC4V, EC4Y. London outcodes cross borough boundaries, so this is the core set rather than an exhaustive one.
28 commercial-relevant planning applications live on the Central London register.
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The Square Mile commercial property market
The City of London is a separate authority rather than a London borough: it is its own ceremonial county, it is governed by the City of London Corporation and it is treated in legislation as if it were an Inner London borough. That legal oddity has a practical consequence for borrowers: the planning authority, the valuation comparables and the tenant covenants here are all City-specific, and a lender who is comfortable in EC2 is not automatically comfortable in E1 a few hundred metres east. Across 1.12 square miles the last full sub-market breakdown put 7,740,000 square metres of office floorspace inside the City, more than any other submarket in Greater London. That figure dates from 2001 and reads as relative scale rather than current stock, but the ranking has not changed.
Occupier composition drives lender behaviour. Banking, insurance and legal occupation clusters by postcode: EC2M around Liverpool Street and Broadgate, EC2Y around Ropemaker Street and the Barbican, EC3R along Monument Street and Mark Lane, EC2V along Cheapside, EC4 through Fleet Street and Ludgate. Westminster and the City of London together generated £204.021 billion of gross value added in 2023. The City's own GDP per capita was recorded at £7.33 million in 2024, the largest figure in the world, but that is a workday-population artefact and we present it as exactly that: 8,583 residents against more than 500,000 workers. It says nothing about resident wealth and everything about the density of economic activity per square foot.
HM Land Registry underlines the point better than any commentary could. Only 102 open-market residential sales completed in the entire City of London in the twelve months to 29 May 2026, at a median of £757,500 and down 2.3% on the year. Terraced stock ran at £980,000 and flats at £745,000, with just 3 of the 102 sales new build. A whole local authority producing 102 residential transactions in a year is the clearest available statement of what the Square Mile actually is: a commercial estate with a small residential population attached, most of it in and around the Barbican. We assess value here from commercial comparables and lender valuations, not from that residential median.
What that means for borrowing. Most City lending is investment lending, tested on interest cover stressed at 140 to 160%, with LTV landing between 65 and 75% and pricing in the 6.5 to 8.5% band. Owner-occupation is smaller in volume but real, typically law firms, brokers, insurers and professional practices buying their own floors, tested on EBITDA cover of 1.3 to 1.5 times at up to 75% on bricks and 6.0 to 7.5%. Hotels and City hospitality are underwritten on trading accounts at 60 to 70% and 7.0 to 9.0%. Refurbishment-led asset management dominates the pipeline, which is why bridging into a term facility is a more common structure here than in most of London.
Live applications on the City of London Corporation planning register
The City of London Corporation publishes a register we can read, and we read it on 26 July 2026. It held 28 commercial-relevant applications at that point. Four are set out below and each maps to a financeable position. 26/00952/FULMAJ at Peninsular House on Monument Street is a major refurbishment and extension with a change of use attached, the archetypal capex programme that gets funded on a bridge and refinanced onto an investment facility once the reletting completes. 26/00936/FULL at 55 Mark Lane converts part of a loading bay into a new cafe use in Class E, asset management adding lettable income to an existing office. 26/00961/ADVT at 31 Liverpool Street is a projecting sign, small but a reliable signal of a shopfront changing hands. 26/00919/FULL at 62 to 63 Cheapside fits defibrillator and bleed-kit cabinets to a retail shopfront. We have placed commercial mortgages against all four archetypes in the last twelve months.
Commercial property types active across the City
Multi-let office investment
The core of the market. Priced on weighted unexpired term and covenant, interest cover 140 to 160%, LTV 65 to 75%.
Single-let office to a strong covenant
The best-priced City asset class, reaching the bottom of the 6.5 to 8.5% band at 60 to 65% LTV.
Refurbishment and repositioning
Part-vacant floors bought to be upgraded and relet. Bridging at 8.5 to 11.0% pa, then a term facility once income is proven.
Street-level retail and cafe units
Class E units under office buildings, often created by asset management rather than bought separately.
City hotels and hospitality
Underwritten on trading accounts with goodwill stripped out, LTV 60 to 70%, 7.0 to 9.0% pa.
Professional-firm owner-occupation
Law, insurance and broking firms buying their own floors on EBITDA cover of 1.3 to 1.5x.
Commercial mortgage products for EC2, EC3 and EC4 assets
Let stock routes through a commercial investment mortgage priced on interest cover. A firm buying its own floors routes through an owner-occupier commercial mortgage on EBITDA cover. Part-vacant buildings bought to be repositioned take bridge-to-let and term out on completion of the letting. Investors holding several City assets consolidate through portfolio refinance at 6.5 to 8.0%. Where a borrower wants to raise capital without disturbing a cheap first charge written before the rate reset, a second-charge commercial mortgage at 8.5 to 11.0% is often cheaper in total than refinancing the whole facility. The City work described here is unregulated commercial lending, beyond the FCA's regulated mortgage perimeter, so we hold no FCA authorisation.
Commercial investment
Let offices and ground-floor shops. Interest cover stressed at 140 to 160%, LTV 65 to 75%, 6.5 to 8.5% pa.
Owner-occupier
Firms buying the floors they trade from. EBITDA cover 1.3 to 1.5x, LTV to 75% on bricks, 6.0 to 7.5% pa.
Commercial remortgage
Facilities written before the rate reset, moved to a new lender or a new structure at 6.0 to 8.0% pa.
Commercial bridging
Vacant or part-let floors bought ahead of refurbishment and re-letting. 8.5 to 11.0% pa, or 0.70 to 0.95% per month.
Portfolio refinance
Several assets under one facility and one covenant test, 6.5 to 8.0% pa.
Lender appetite in the City of London office market
The Square Mile holds the deepest commercial lender pool in the UK and the most covenant-sensitive credit teams on the panel. NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays and Santander all run City commercial teams and compete on strong-covenant let offices at 60 to 65% LTV and the bottom of the 6.5 to 8.5% band. Multi-let stock with rolling breaks and shorter unexpired terms prices more realistically with Shawbrook, InterBay Commercial, Allica, Cambridge and Counties and Hampshire Trust. Cynergy Bank, LendInvest, Together and Recognise fund part-vacant and repositioning plays where the exit is a letting rather than a sale, and OakNorth and Handelsbanken take relationship-led single tickets. The practical test on almost every City deal is not whether a lender likes the building, it is whether the weighted average unexpired lease term clears their stress. We check that before we approach anyone.
Property types we finance in City of London
Asset classes most active in City of London, each linked to the dedicated finance structure, lender appetite and typical terms for that property type.
City of London commercial mortgage rates, fees and deposit
The commercial mortgage rates we are placing in City of London at mid-2026 sit at 6.5 to 8.5% pa for the dominant local profile, which here is office investment, where lease length and tenant covenant drive the rate more than the postcode does. Expect loan to value of 65 to 75%, which puts the deposit or retained equity at roughly a quarter to a third of the value of the property. Owner-occupied business borrowing prices from 6.0 to 7.5% pa, commercial investment from 6.5 to 8.5% pa, and trading businesses from 7.0 to 9.0% pa. A commercial remortgage on an asset you already hold in EC1A, EC2M, EC2N and the surrounding outcodes runs 6.0 to 8.0% pa.
Costs beyond the rate are where City of London deals are won or lost. Arrangement fees run 1.0 to 2.0% of the facility. Valuation fees start around £1,500 on a single unit and reach £8,000 or more on a multi-let London building, and the RICS Red Book valuation is the critical path on almost every case, so we instruct it in week one. Legal costs run £4,000 to £15,000. Stamp duty land tax applies at the non-residential rates. Check early repayment charges before you fix, because a five-year fix broken in year two is rarely the cheapest way to repay. Local pricing context: the median transaction in City of London is £757,500, which is residential data we use only as a temperature gauge for the surrounding market.
Bridging finance in City of London, and when it is the right answer
Not every City of London purchase fits a term facility on day one. An auction lot, a vacant unit that needs letting before a lender will price it, or a change-of-use scheme awaiting consent all point at commercial bridging first. Bridging loans run 8.5 to 11.0% pa, or 0.70 to 0.95% per month, over three to twenty-four months, and exit onto a commercial mortgage once the asset is income-producing. We only recommend bridging finance where the exit is genuinely identified and underwritten, because an unplanned bridge is the most expensive money in commercial finance. If the term lender will take the deal now, we will tell you to skip the bridge.
Which City of London commercial mortgage lenders to approach
There is no single best lender for City of London commercial property, only the right lender for this building on this week's credit appetite. High-street commercial lenders price keenest on prime business: Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and Santander all compete where the covenant is strong. Challenger lenders such as Allica, Aldermore, Cambridge and Counties, OakNorth and Paragon take most of the SME and mid-market finance in EC1A, EC2M, EC2N and the surrounding outcodes. Specialist lenders, Shawbrook, InterBay Commercial, LendInvest, Cynergy Bank, Together and Hampshire Trust, cover the semi-commercial, multi-let and shorter-lease commercial finance the high street declines.
Comparing those finance options properly is the work. Most brokers send a deal to two lenders they know. We benchmark it across the panel, because the difference between the third-best and the best quote on a City of London commercial property is usually worth more than every fee in the transaction combined. We arrange commercial mortgages, commercial remortgages, portfolio facilities, second charges and bridging loans. We do not arrange unsecured business loans, and we do not arrange buy-to-let mortgages on residential property, so if that is what your deal needs we will say so and point you elsewhere rather than waste a month finding out.
On eligibility, the property finance question we are asked most in City of London is what a lender needs before it will commit. For owner-occupied business, two years of filed accounts is the usual minimum, though twelve to eighteen months places comfortably in well-understood sectors. For investment properties the eligibility test is about the tenant, the lease and the cover ratio rather than about you personally. Clean credit for the company and its directors matters throughout, and a full inspection rather than a desktop valuation is worth insisting on, because a thin report can cost five to ten percentage points of LTV. Send us the property market context you already have, the lease or the accounts, and we will tell you which lenders will look at it before you spend anything.
Live commercial planning in City of London
28 commercial-relevant applications sit on the register for this area. Each one is a building changing use, changing hands or changing size, and most of them need finance at some point in that process. Read on 2026-07-26.
- 26/00978/OBS2026-07-07
25 Ropemaker Street, Ropemaker Place, London, EC2Y 9LY
Consultation by the London Borough of Islington on external alterations to ground floor facade including infill and reglazing of the main entrance at corner of Ropemaker Street and Finsbury Street with the creation of additional Class E(g)(i) floorspace, installation of new entra
EC2Y 9LYView on portal → - 26/00961/ADVT2026-07-06
31 Liverpool Street London EC2M 7PD
Installation of one externally illuminated projecting sign displaying white finish hand lettering on blue background to match the existing shopfront colour, measuring overall 600mm height by 600mm width by 20mm depth, situated at a height above ground of 3121mm.
EC2M 7PDView on portal → - 26/00952/FULMAJ2026-07-03
Peninsular House 30 - 36 Monument Street London EC3R 8LJ
Refurbishment and extension of the existing building at the front, tenth and eleventh floors, alteration to City Walkway and all enabling works associated with the development and a change of use from Office (Class E(g)) to deliver a new Hotel (Class C1).
EC3R 8LJView on portal → - 26/00936/FULL2026-07-01
55 Mark Lane London EC3R 7NE
Refurishment of the entrance and principal elevation, with introduction of a new cafe use (Use Class E) in place of part of the existing loading bay, installation of a new gate to loading bay entrance and associated works.
EC3R 7NEView on portal → - 26/00948/OBS2026-06-26
Land Bounded By Wandsworth Road, Parry Street, Bondway, Miles Street And Railway Viaduct, London, SW8
Consultation by London Borough of Lambeth on a planning application for the phased redevelopment of the site including demolition of all existing buildings and structures to erect up to 7 buildings ranging from three to 69 storeys plus basements for a range of land uses comprisin
City of LondonView on portal → - 26/00919/FULL2026-06-26
Retail Unit 62 - 63 Cheapside London EC2V 6BP
Installation of 1no. defibrillator cabinet and 1no. bleed kit cabinet to external shopfront.
EC2V 6BPView on portal →
Source: the City of London Public Access planning register, filtered for Class E, B2 and B8 uses, change of use into commercial, and trading-business consents. Planning activity is a market signal, not a measure of commercial lending volume.
City of London sold-price data
Live HM Land Registry transaction data for the City of London local authority area. Use this as market evidence when appraising your scheme or testing GDV assumptions.
Median price
£758K
-2.3% YoY
Transactions (12m)
102
Completed sales
New-build share
2.9%
3 new-build sales
New-build premium
+82.0%
vs existing stock
Median price by property type
Terraced
£980K
Flat / Apartment
£745K
Recent transactions
| Date | Postcode | Address | Type | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 May 2026 | EC2Y 9AP | FLAT 1402, 5, MOOR LANE | Flat / Apartment | £880K |
| 6 May 2026 | EC2Y 8BE | 4, BRANDON MEWS, BARBICAN | Terraced | £980K |
| 30 Apr 2026 | EC2Y 8BN | FLAT 702, WILLOUGHBY HOUSE, BARBICAN | Flat / Apartment | £775K |
| 20 Apr 2026 | EC2Y 8DH | 215, BUNYAN COURT, BARBICAN | Flat / Apartment | £520K |
| 30 Mar 2026 | EC4Y 0DD | APARTMENT 13, VICTORIA HOUSE, 25, TUDOR … | Flat / Apartment | £823K |
| 27 Mar 2026 | E1 8BZ | FLAT 6, PROSPERO HOUSE, 6, PORTSOKEN STR… | Flat / Apartment | £357K |
| 5 Mar 2026 | EC2Y 8NE | FLAT 87, JOHN TRUNDLE COURT, BARBICAN | Flat / Apartment | £418K |
| 2 Mar 2026 | EC4A 1BF | APARTMENT 41, ST. DUNSTANS HOUSE, 133 - … | Flat / Apartment | £605K |
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, City of London. Updated 29 May 2026. Residential transactions, PPD category A. Used as a market-temperature gauge for the surrounding area, not as a measure of commercial transaction volume.
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