Bridge Financing in BC: Should You Sell First or Buy First?

The Short Answer

Almost nobody manages to close their sale and their purchase on the same day, and trying to force it usually costs more than solving it properly. Bridge financing exists to cover the gap when your purchase completes before your sale does — you borrow against the equity in the home you’ve already sold, and repay it when that sale funds.

But bridge financing is the answer to only one version of the question. The decision that comes first is whether to sell before you buy or buy before you sell, and that decision turns on a single fact: a firm sale unlocks nearly every tool available to you, and almost none of them exist before it.

Get the sequence right and the financing is straightforward. Get it wrong and you’re either carrying two properties you can’t service, or holding cash with nowhere to live and no leverage in a market you have to buy back into.

The Two Ways This Goes Wrong

Buy first, sell later, and the sale doesn’t come. You’ve committed unconditionally to a purchase on the strength of a home you expect to sell. If it sits — and in a slow market it can sit for months — you own two properties, service two mortgages, and eventually accept a price you’d have refused at the start. Every week of delay erodes your negotiating position on the property you still need to move.

Sell first, buy later, and the market moves. You’ve got certainty and cash, but no home. If prices rise or inventory thins while you’re looking, you buy back into a worse market than the one you sold in. And the pressure of a completion date bearing down on you is not a state in which people make good purchase decisions.

Neither risk is theoretical. The sequencing question is the whole game in a move-up, which is why it sits at the centre of how we approach move-up buyers.

The Firm Sale Is the Hinge

This is the single most useful thing to understand, and it reframes the entire decision.

A conditional sale is a hope. A firm sale — subjects removed, deposit in — is a known amount of money arriving on a known date. To a lender those are completely different objects, and almost every timing tool in the toolkit becomes available the moment you cross that line:

• Bridge financing becomes a routine approval rather than a difficult one.
• Deposit financing becomes available, so you can make a competitive offer without your money.
• Your purchase can be written with realistic dates rather than dates chosen to force alignment.
• You can negotiate on the purchase from a position of certainty rather than urgency.

So the practical answer to “sell first or buy first” is usually neither: sell to firm, then buy. The window between subject removal on your sale and completion on your purchase is where the entire transaction wants to live. It is also the window most people skip past, because they start shopping before they list.

What Bridge Financing Actually Is

A short-term loan secured against the equity in the property you’ve sold, advanced on your purchase completion date and repaid when the sale funds. You own both properties briefly; the bridge covers the down payment you haven’t received yet.

It is priced at prime plus a wide margin. That’s convenience pricing, not a rate you shop, and it isn’t meant to be held — most bridges run days or weeks, not months.

A real file

A Canadian Forces family relocating from Ontario to Alberta. First mortgage of $430,000 advanced on 2 July. Bridge of $415,000, calculated daily rather than in advance, with a $250 bridge processing fee and a $100 title fee deducted from the proceeds. Repaid in full on 15 July — thirteen days.

Why the usual objection didn’t apply. The standard complaint about bridges is that they’re expensive for a handful of days. In this file the Department of National Defence funds relocation costs including interim financing, so the objection evaporated entirely. Same structure, same cost, completely different decision — based on nothing but who pays.

That’s worth knowing if you’re posted: Canadian Forces relocation happens on fixed dates that rarely cooperate with real estate, and the program exists precisely because the timing is not within the member’s control.

The paperwork is heavier than people expect

A Declaration, Direction, Promissory Note, Assignment of Funds and Direction to Pay all go back to the lender before any advance. Your solicitor runs a sub-search of title on the departing property to confirm ownership, encumbrances and the balance owing.

None of it is difficult, but it takes time, and it happens in the same week as everything else. Start it early rather than discovering it three days before completion.

The threshold that changes the deal

A bridge over $150,000, or one running longer than 90 days, generally has to be secured by a collateral mortgage registered against the property being sold — which then carries a discharge fee at the end.

Small and short means a promissory note and a few hundred dollars. Large and slow means a registered charge with real cost attached. That threshold is worth knowing before you set your completion dates, because a few days either side of it can change what the arrangement costs.

The wall

A bridge isn’t hard to get. It’s hard to get without a firm sale, because without one the lender is lending against a hope rather than a known amount arriving on a known date. Lenders want the business, and where there’s no meaningful risk they’re comfortable with most applications and earn a little for the trouble.

Remove the firm sale and the conversation changes completely — which brings us back to the hinge.

Deposit Loans: The Problem That Arrives Earlier

People conflate this with a bridge, and they’re solving different weeks.

A bridge covers the gap between two completions. A deposit loan covers the deposit due when your offer is accepted — weeks earlier, before any closing exists. This is the actual moment a sell-then-buy household gets stuck: every dollar they have is inside the house they’re selling, and they can’t put $50,000 down to make a competitive offer on the one they want.

Deposit Financing (BCFSA #X300687) operates in British Columbia only. It requires a firm sale with equity behind it. No appraisal, no registration, no appointment with a lawyer — funded electronically.

Same precondition, same hinge. The firm sale is what makes it available.

What to Do When There Is No Firm Sale

Sometimes the purchase genuinely can’t wait — the right property appears before your home is listed, or a family situation forces the sequence. The options narrow but they don’t disappear.

Write a subject-to-sale offer. Weak in a competitive market and rejected outright in a hot one, but in a slower market with a motivated seller it costs nothing to try and it removes the entire problem.

Qualify to carry both. If your income supports both payments under the stress test, you don’t need a bridge — you need a normal mortgage on the new property and a plan for the old one. Expensive but clean, and worth checking before assuming it’s impossible.

Use a private lender for the gap. Where a bridge isn’t available because the sale isn’t firm, a private mortgage sometimes is — priced accordingly, and only sensible with a genuine exit. The discipline that applies to every private mortgage applies double here: know what ends it before it starts.

Reconsider the sequence. The least popular answer and often the right one. If the financing to buy first is expensive, uncertain, or unavailable, the market is telling you something about the risk you were about to take.

Before You Set Your Dates

Most bridge problems are timing problems created weeks earlier, when the completion dates were chosen. Worth settling before you sign anything:

• What is the actual gap between your sale completing and your purchase completing?
• Does the bridge amount cross $150,000, or the term cross 90 days?
• Will your lender bridge at all, and on what terms — not every lender does.
• Is your deposit coming from savings or does it need financing too?
• What happens if the sale is delayed a week? This is the question nobody asks and it is the one that bites.

One structural note that sits underneath all of it: if you’re moving mid-term, your existing mortgage has to go somewhere. Porting looks like the obvious answer and it usually disappoints once the new money is blended in, so run that comparison before you build a plan around it. Bridge financing sits alongside the other structures in when the standard mortgage doesn’t fit in BC, and on choosing someone to sequence this properly, see choosing a mortgage broker for renewals and refinancing in BC — a move-up is a renewal decision and a purchase decision at the same time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is bridge financing in BC?

A short-term loan secured against the equity in a home you’ve sold but not yet closed, used to cover your down payment when your purchase completes before your sale does. It’s advanced on the purchase completion date and repaid when the sale funds, often within days or weeks.

Can I get a bridge loan without a firm sale?

Almost never. Without a firm sale the lender is lending against a hope rather than a known amount arriving on a known date. With subjects removed on your sale, bridge financing is one of the more straightforward approvals in the business.

Should I sell my house first or buy first in BC?

Usually neither in the way people mean it — the answer is to sell to firm, then buy. Once your sale is firm you have certainty about the amount and the date, which makes bridge and deposit financing available, lets you set realistic completion dates, and lets you negotiate on the purchase without a deadline forcing your hand.

How much does bridge financing cost?

It’s priced at prime plus a wide margin, usually calculated daily rather than in advance, plus a processing fee and a title fee — on one recent file, $250 and $100 respectively. Because most bridges run days or weeks rather than months, the fees often matter more than the interest.

What is the difference between a bridge loan and a deposit loan?

A bridge covers the gap between your purchase completing and your sale completing. A deposit loan covers the deposit due when your offer is accepted, which is weeks earlier and before any closing exists. Sellers buying their next home usually get stuck at the deposit stage, not the closing stage.

How long can a bridge loan run?

Most run days or weeks. Beyond 90 days — or above roughly $150,000 — the lender will generally require a collateral mortgage registered against the property being sold, which adds a discharge fee at the end. Small and short is cheap; large and slow carries real cost.

What happens if my sale falls through after I’ve taken a bridge?

This is the scenario worth planning for rather than hoping past. The bridge becomes due without the funds that were meant to repay it, and you’re carrying both properties. It’s the reason lenders insist on a firm sale, and the reason your completion dates should have a week of slack built in wherever the parties will allow it.

Get the Sequence Right Before You Get the Financing

The useful conversation happens before the offer, not after. What your home is likely to sell for, what you can carry if it doesn’t sell quickly, where the deposit is coming from, and what the gap between completions realistically looks like.

Bridge financing is the easy part once those are settled. It’s the files where nobody settled them that turn into problems.

Call or text 604-833-4663 (HOME) or book a free, zero-pressure strategy session. If you’re posted with the Canadian Forces, mention it — relocation funding changes the arithmetic significantly.

Every mortgage we arrange goes into HomeBrew, so when a move starts becoming likely the numbers are already on file rather than assembled under pressure.

About the author: Michael Lloyd has been in mortgage lending since 1988 and a licensed mortgage broker since 1999 (BCFSA licence #087740). He founded and led DLC Canadian Mortgage Experts to over $1.8 billion in annual mortgage volume before returning to full-time client work. Michael leads The HomeHappy Team @ Canadian Mortgage Experts, co-brokering under Indi Mortgage, serving homeowners across British Columbia with strategy-first mortgage planning and lifetime mortgage management. In 2017, he testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on Canada’s mortgage rules — two of his three recommendations became federal policy in 2024.