Commercial Mortgages Broker UK Commercial Mortgage Glossary Reference edition, MMXXVI

Methodology

How the glossary is compiled. Term selection, source materials, editorial rules, and the update cadence.

Term selection

Each entry is selected by frequency of appearance on UK commercial mortgage heads of terms, facility agreements and credit decisions from the last 24 months of CMB Finance Ltd's broker book. Terms that show up on fewer than five distinct heads of terms across that window are held back to a later edition unless they are structurally important (the metric every lender tests but few explain in plain English, for example).

Source materials

  • Live UK commercial mortgage heads of terms across the 90+ lender panel CMB Finance Ltd works with.
  • Public lender criteria packs from the named lenders: Shawbrook, InterBay Commercial, LendInvest, Cynergy Bank, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, Santander.
  • UK Land Registry guidance on charge registration.
  • Companies House guidance on debenture registration (MR01).
  • RICS Red Book guidance on commercial property valuation.
  • UK Bank of England series for Bank Rate and SONIA reference, where they appear in a definition.

Worked examples

Where an entry includes a worked example, the numbers reflect typical mid-ticket UK commercial mortgage deals (loan sizes 500,000 to 2.5 million). The location, property type and pricing in each example are illustrative composites drawn from the broker book, not identifiable individual deals. Pricing reflects May 2026 market conditions and may drift in either direction.

Editorial rules

  • Rate ranges, not midpoints. UK commercial mortgage pricing is genuinely dispersed across covenant, LTV and sector. We publish the floor and the ceiling.
  • Named lenders only where we have explicit working relationships and permission to use the brand. Other lenders are referenced anonymously as "specialist lender" or "clearing bank".
  • Broker voice, plural. We write from the perspective of an active UK commercial mortgage broker, not from a marketing seat.
  • Plain English. Where a piece of jargon needs unpacking, the entry unpacks it before using it.

Update cadence

New entries added roughly monthly. Existing entries refreshed when market practice moves materially (changes in UK lender stress formulas, new charge structures, new FCA guidance affecting the commercial perimeter). Each entry carries a published date and a last-modified date if it has been updated.

What we will not publish

  • Specific lender pricing or named lender criteria detail. That sits on direct lender packs, not on a public glossary.
  • Identifiable client deals. Worked examples are composites.
  • Regulated mortgage terminology that does not also apply to UK commercial mortgages.

Editorial independence

Lenders do not pay to be defined and have no pre-approval over what we publish. Where a lender's commercial practice is unusual or sits outside the market norm, we say so in the relevant entry.