Commercial Mortgages North End

The North End commercial property market

North End is the volume engine of Portsmouth HMO conversion activity. The PO2 belt around London Road, Kirby Road and the residential grid east of the A3 carries the largest C3 to C4 and C4 to sui generis HMO conversion flow in this network, driven by the c. 28,000-student University of Portsmouth catchment and a stable young-professional naval and BAE Systems shipyard demographic. Average HMO bed rents PO2 sit in the £550 to £700 per bed range in 2026 on professionally managed 7-bed sui generis stock, with 9-bed schemes (where licensing and parking allow) clearing well above that on the best London Road and Powerscourt Road properties. London Road itself carries a parade of small-cap independent retail, takeaways, barbers, convenience and a thinning tail of national-multiple presence, with semi-commercial shop-with-flat dominating the freehold purchase and refinance pipeline. Portsmouth City Council Article 4 directions cover parts of the PO1 to PO5 ring, so new C3 to C4 conversions in central wards require full planning consent rather than permitted development, which we factor into LTV and timing on every North End conversion deal.

Most North End commercial mortgage deals run in the £250K to £900K facility bracket, sui generis HMO investment, semi-commercial London Road parade purchases, and owner-occupier independents buying their unit. Pricing on a stabilised, licensed, sui generis 7-bed HMO with two years of trading history currently runs 7.0 to 8.5% pa at 70 to 75% LTV through Paragon, InterBay Commercial and Together, with the lower end available to portfolio landlords presenting an aggregated, well-documented book. Semi-commercial shop-with-flat blended ICR pricing runs 7.5 to 9.0% pa at 75% LTV via InterBay Commercial, Together and HTB. Owner-occupier independent retail on London Road prices 6.5 to 8.0% pa at 70 to 75% LTV through Allica Bank and Hampshire Trust Bank.

HM Land Registry residential transactions across PO2 cluster firmly in the terraced bracket, with recent files including a £321K Drayton Road PO2 7HW comparable that captures the late-Victorian terraced conversion-stock pricing point feeding the HMO investment market, and the median PO2 terrace pricing at c. £260K supports the cost-base on which the 7-bed sui generis HMO yield model works. They are not direct commercial signals, but they confirm the underlying acquisition cost and refinance valuation backstop that all North End HMO and semi-commercial lending sits against. Refinancing of maturing 2020 and 2021 HMO facilities is the single largest 2026 product flow across the PO2 belt.

Active commercial property types in North End

Lender appetite for North End sui generis HMO and London Road semi-commercial

Deep across the PO2 HMO and semi-commercial panel. Paragon runs the canonical portfolio HMO desk and routinely tops the shortlist on PO2 sui generis 7-bed and 9-bed stabilised investment at 70 to 75% LTV and 7.0 to 8.0% pa. InterBay Commercial and Together compete hard on single-property sui generis HMO and on semi-commercial London Road shop-with-flat at 75% LTV blended ICR. HTB covers larger 9-bed plus schemes and Class E ground plus HMO above hybrid deals where the structure does not fit the cleaner specialist HMO desks. Allica Bank handles owner-occupier independent retail on London Road and Kingston Road at 6.5 to 8.0% pa, with relationship underwriting on independents that beats the high street on speed. Shawbrook takes selected sui generis HMO and Class E hybrid deals where bridge-to-let through licensing is part of the deal structure. Cynergy Bank covers the small-cap F&B and takeaway trading-business along London Road. Hampshire Trust Bank is locally headquartered in Hampshire and runs an active Portsmouth HMO investment book, particularly on owner-occupier independents and small-portfolio investors. Allica, HTB, Paragon, Together, YBS Commercial and Cambridge & Counties all take selected PO2 HMO and semi-commercial deals in the £250K to £900K bracket. Refinancing on a stabilised licensed sui generis 7-bed HMO typically prices 7.0 to 8.0% pa at 70 to 75% LTV. Commercial mortgages are unregulated lending and fall outside the FCA regulated mortgage perimeter, we do not hold FCA authorisation because the products we arrange are unregulated.