‘We have lent money on anything and everything over the years’

By David Craik 16th June 2026

Lender Devon & Cornwall Securities is heading towards a half century of what it describes modestly as “competent lending” driven by a number of unique strengths and qualities.

One of those is that it has just joined the Bridging Loan Directory – even though it does not offer traditional bridging or development loans.

Instead, the company, which was formed in 1983 by Dugald Sproull and Peter Cameron, calls itself the country’s only true, long-term, non-status commercial lender.

Lending purely against the value of a property, the company offers a straightforward underwriting approach with no credit checks or status enquiries. Facilities are interest-only and open-ended, meaning borrowers can repay at any time, provided monthly interest payments are maintained.

It supports a wide range of commercial security types including retail units, offices, industrial premises, hospitality assets, land (with or without planning), care homes and mixed-use property. It also has a more esoteric range of clients, including businesses on privately-owned islands, farms and beach hotels.

Zoe Sproull, daughter of Dugald and director at the firm alongside Dugald and brother Daniel, explained that Devon & Cornwall “comes at the lending proposition from a slightly different perspective than some other lenders”.

She added: “As my father likes to say, we have lent money on anything and everything over the years from fields, to islands, harbours, marinas and schools. These are areas that other lenders tend to shy away from. Quite often we will get a call from a broker who ‘knows we like quirky things, so how about this?!”

Even though it is based in Cornwall and does strong volumes of business in the South West, the company lends across England, particularly the North, and Wales.

Examples of its work include an £848,575 commercial open-ended mortgage secured against a 144-acre farm in North Devon. The loan represented 63% loan-to-value against the property’s 90-day sale value and enabled the borrower to refinance an existing mortgage that had reached maturity while stabilising their wider financial position.

It also allowed the borrower to diversify the farm’s income streams to glamping pods.

Another recent deal was a £227,000 commercial mortgage secured against a small portfolio of hotels in Blackpool. The facility enabled an existing property investor to refinance four hotels, repay existing borrowing and raise additional funds.

As the company has previously explained, its open-ended facilities avoid the cliff edge of a fixed term repayment deadline, allowing borrowers to repay when it best suits their business circumstances.

Areas which the company does not lend to are petrol stations with active tanks and potentially just as combustible – nightclubs.

“The type of property we lend on has not changed over the years. We are unregulated so the loan has got to be for business purposes. We can have a residential element, say at a farm or a hotel but that has to be under 40% of the property,” Zoe said. “We don’t do development finance, and we are not a bridging lender, even though we are featuring in the BLD! All of our loans are open-ended. You can have them for as long or as short a time as you’d like. Some people refinance within a matter of months, whilst we have had loans on our books for ten years plus.”

She said that borrowers like the hassle-free nature and flexibility of these deals.

“As long as the borrower pays their interest every month and insurance every year then they won’t hear from us. We won’t bother them,” she said. “That flexibility is particularly important, especially where the focus is on long-term growth rather than a defined exit.”

That fits in well in these current uncertain economic times.

“Business at the moment is good. There are a lot of transactions going through on our books,” she said. “There is a lot of uncertainty around interest and mortgage rates and repayments which means borrowers are looking for more open-ended options like ours. There are a few challenges with valuations, which seem to be taking longer to get completed. The valuers are very busy and interest rate and economic uncertainty doesn’t make their job easier.”

She said that this in turn means transactions are also taking longer.

“We seem to be waiting for the other side to do their bit even though we are ready. If everyone is on the same page, we can get transactions completed very quickly,” she explained. “That’s helped by having a firm of solicitors who will always put our work to the top of the pile. That’s where we are like a bridging lender – we are quick and agile.”

The legal world is one the Sproulls know well as all three are qualified solicitors. “Any training you can bring to a job can be helpful, (although Devon & Cornwall Securities Limited is not a firm of solicitors),” Zoe explained. “It brings a different dimension when you are talking to clients in terms of understanding regulations or going through planning documents. We can look at things in a different analytical way than other lenders. It gives us a unique perspective.”

It also helps the company lend in other areas which lenders tend to shy away from. “We have also lent a lot to charities, which again, a lot of lenders don’t like doing,” Zoe added. “But because we are trained solicitors, we have an understanding of charity law, which means we can deal with that in a way others can’t.”

Indeed, the company is working on what it describes as one of its biggest deals ever – a £2.5 million loan in the school’s charity sector. “It’s not our biggest, but for a company our size it is unusual,” Zoe said.” Our typical loan size is between £300,000 and £500,000 with a minimum of £30,000.”

Attention to detail and figures is also a vital part of a trained solicitor’s playbook. As such it means that at least one of the directors will go and visit every single property it lends on.

Zoe said: “We get a real feel for what the borrower is offering us. If it is a buy-to-let on a residential street we may just do a drive-by, but if it is a farm in Wales then we will go and meet the borrower. We don’t use technology to provide us with a valuation. We always use a local RICS surveyor. They are the experts and, as we lend purely on the value of the property, we have to be sure the asset is worth what the borrower says it is worth!”

Carrying out the visits also brings the personal touch to proceedings. “We don’t want to be a faceless company. We are always at the end of the phone so borrowers can chat through any problems they might have. We take pride in being approachable,” Zoe said.

Devon & Cornwall want to develop more of those relationships, which is why it has joined the Bridging Loan Directory. “It is getting the message out to brokers. They don’t always know that we are out here with a unique open-ended product which gives borrowers the ultimate flexibility. Now that can’t be a bad thing!”

In order to further improve communications with brokers and borrowers the company is launching a new technology platform, partially driven by AI, this summer. “It will help with initial enquiries and filtering out those that don’t fit our criteria,” she explained. “We are trying to move with the times!”

Mentioning time – could the company notch up another 40 years?

“My parents have 10 grandchildren so we are hoping that one or two will come along behind us,” Zoe said. “I believe it does help being a family business. Clients like it and internally you have an inherent understanding of how your fellow directors work and think. As we have a healthy respect for each other when we do disagree, we do it agreeably.”

Note: Although its directors are solicitors, Devon & Cornwall Securitise Limited is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.