An experienced commercial mortgage broker for Reading and the Thames Valley
Founded by Matt Lenzie: 25 years in financial services, raising debt and equity, and around £400m of property finance arranged. We arrange unregulated commercial mortgages across owner-occupier, investment, semi-commercial, portfolio refinancing and trading-business deals, approaching the high-street, challenger and specialist lenders whose criteria fit the deal.
£400m+
Property finance arranged
25 yrs
Financial services, raising debt and equity
48 hrs
Indicative terms
Specialist, not generalist
We are led by founder Matt Lenzie, who has 25 years in financial services, raising debt and equity, and has arranged around £400m of property finance. We work on the borrower side, and that shapes how we structure and present every commercial mortgage application. We package an application the way a credit officer wants to read it: fewer decline surprises, faster decisions, sharper terms. We set out what an underwriter will need to see, what tends to trigger a decline, and where there is genuine flexibility versus where there is not.
We broker commercial mortgages and only commercial mortgages. Owner-occupier, commercial investment, semi-commercial (the unregulated cases), portfolio refinance, trading-business, commercial remortgage, commercial bridging and second-charge commercial. We do not place residential mortgages, residential buy-to-let, regulated bridging, car finance, asset finance or unsecured business loans. Those are different markets with different lenders and different broker specialisms. We would rather be excellent at one product family than mediocre across six. If you call us about a residential remortgage, regulated semi-commercial, or anything else that would require FCA authorisation, we will refer you to a regulated firm that handles it properly.
Matt has arranged around £400m of property finance. Facility sizes from £150K to £10M+, terms 5 to 25 years, and every mainstream sector: retail, office, industrial and warehouse, leisure and hospitality, healthcare and care homes, pubs and restaurants, MOT and forecourt, day nursery, semi-commercial shop+flats (unregulated), mixed-use blocks, HMO portfolios and FHL portfolios. The work covers Reading and the wider Thames Valley footprint. Wokingham Borough (Earley, Lower Earley, Woodley, Winnersh, Thames Valley Park) and West Berkshire (Theale, Calcot, Pangbourne) all sit comfortably inside the same lender pool. See our illustrative scenarios for the kinds of deals we structure.
Commercial mortgages are unregulated lending. They fall outside the Financial Conduct Authority's regulated mortgage perimeter, which means they are not protected by FCA conduct rules and we do not hold FCA authorisation. That position is not unusual. Most commercial mortgage brokers operate the same way, because the products themselves are unregulated. What it does mean: the discipline we apply to every deal comes from packaging applications to the standard lenders expect, not from a regulated obligation. Where a deal would require FCA authorisation, we refer the enquiry to an appropriately authorised firm.
How we work
Specialist focus
Unregulated commercial mortgages only. No cross-selling, no loss-leader products, no residential, no regulated bridging, no unsecured. Single product family, deep expertise.
Credit-ready packaging
We package an application the way a credit officer wants to read it: fewer decline surprises, faster decisions, sharper terms.
Reading market depth
We follow which Thames Valley lenders are active. NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays and Santander on the central RG1 high-street side; Allica Bank and Atom Bank competing on Thames Valley owner-occupier; Shawbrook, InterBay Commercial, OakNorth and Cynergy Bank on the Green Park and Forbury Place investment stock. We prepare the comparable evidence RICS Red Book valuers expect across the RG1 to RG31 footprint. Naming a lender describes the market; it does not mean we have a relationship with it.
Straight answers
If the deal does not work, wrong sector for that LTV, EBITDA cover too tight, ERC kills the remortgage maths, vendor's price unsupported by RICS comparables, you hear it on day one. Not after a wasted valuation fee.
End-to-end execution
Single point of contact from initial enquiry through indicative terms, full application, RICS Red Book valuation, credit approval, solicitor instruction, completion and drawdown. You speak to one person; we coordinate everything else.
Repeat clients
Most clients return for the next deal. Second freehold acquisition, portfolio addition, end-of-fix refinancing. The knowledge of your business and track record we build up makes the next case quicker to package.
Why a specialist Reading broker
The Reading commercial mortgage market has genuine regional nuance: Reading Borough Council planning policy, the Station Hill masterplan (Lincoln MGT / Lothbury, c. 1.3 million sq ft, 2024 to 2030 delivery), the Green Park flagship business park (195 acres, Mapletree, c. 1.5 million sq ft, Cisco / PepsiCo / Three / Bayer), the Thames Valley Park big-tech cluster (Microsoft / Oracle / Verizon), the Forbury Place / Forbury Square Grade-A office benchmark, plus the Wokingham Borough flank (Winnersh Triangle, Woodley) and the West Berkshire flank (Theale Business Park M4 J12). Lenders active in this market include Shawbrook, InterBay Commercial, LendInvest, Cynergy Bank, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and Santander, Allica Bank, Atom Bank, Cambridge & Counties, Aldermore, OakNorth, Hampshire Trust Bank, HTB, Together, Paragon, Recognise Bank, YBS Commercial, Handelsbanken and the long tail of specialist commercial mortgage desks. Naming a lender describes the market; it does not mean we have a relationship with it. For the working market view we publish each quarter, see our editorial read on the Reading commercial property market in 2026. We look for the lender whose criteria fit your deal most cleanly, and we will tell you which kind of lender that is on the first call. See also our Reading commercial mortgage broker hub for the wider network view.
For a working read on the wider Reading commercial property landscape, see our 2026 Reading commercial property market piece.
Let's talk about your commercial mortgage
Indicative terms within 48 hours. No cost for the initial assessment.