Commercial Mortgages - Commercial Lending

Commercial mortgages are often required by small businesses, partnerships, and self-employed sole traders who lack the capital needed to expand or purchase property and equipment.

Long term commercial finance, in the form of a mortgage, offers many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) the ability to invest in their business with new technology, new or refurbished premises, or increased stock levels.

In the past, it tended to be only larger organisations with a proven track record who could obtain commercial mortgages. But the attitudes and lending criteria of a lot of mainstream banks and building societies meant that, until recently, a large number of younger/smaller businesses were unable to obtain this type of commercial finance.

As a result, many businesses have been forced to rely on expensive short term finance (such as asset finance, leasing, or overdrafts) or left to use their owners’ residential property as security.

Fortunately, this gap in the market is now being targeted by specialist commercial lenders who are willing to serve the commercial mortgage needs of SMEs and owner-managed businesses.

The problem

In the past, it has been difficult for small business borrowers, self-employed traders, and partnerships to raise commercial mortgage finance. This is because:

Institutional lenders have focused on larger, corporate lending secured on the tenant covenant of investment properties. This sector is seen as being low risk and so has become a favourite of many traditional lenders.

The lending criteria of many mainstream commercial lenders disqualify applicants who do not have three years’ audited account, those without business plans, or those with a less than perfect credit history. As the UK workforce migrates more towards self-employment, greater flexibility is required from lenders to assess each case on its individual merits. Until recently, this flexibility has been hard to find. Similarly, in the past, the requirement for three years’ accounts has been a barrier to new or young businesses.

How a specialist adviser can help

To address these problems, commercial mortgage advisers work in conjunction with specialist lenders to offer commercial mortgages with some or all of the following features:

Flexibility

Available to small owner managed limited companies, partnerships, and self-employed sole-traders
Self-certification option - no need for three years’ accounts
No compulsory insurances
No need to change your personal or business banker
Finance available for any purpose – no bank imposed restrictions
Mortgage arrears, CCJs, IVAs, discharged bankruptcy all considered

Fast Turnaround

Same day indicative offer
Mortgage offer a week from initial enquiry (subject to obtaining valuation fee)
Completion from two weeks, rather than six months
No need for business plans, CVs, projections, etc
No interviews with the bank

Competitive Terms

Transparent mortgage tracking Bank Base Rate
Mortgage term of up to thirty years
Advances from £50,000 up to £1.5m