Commercial mortgage broker for owner-occupiers and investors

Two situations bring people to us, and the right lender differs.

• Owner-occupiers are trading businesses buying the commercial premises they operate from. You stop paying rent and build equity in your own asset. The bank underwrites how the firm trades, so accounts, profit and sector carry weight.
• Investment buyers treat the building as a property investment let for yield. The funder underwrites the rent and the tenant, and an interest serviced facility keeps cost down while you hold. We also help a landlord and property investors restructure a property portfolio, scale an investment portfolio or commercial portfolio, and back property developers matching their property ambitions.

A bank that loves a strong owner-occupier covenant may have no appetite for a multi-let industrial unit. One credit team gets one answer; the market gets the right one.

Your commercial mortgage interest rate runs indicatively 6.5% to 9.5% per year. A prime covenant with low leverage sits at the lower end; weaker trading, a short lease or higher gearing push you up. Commercial rates track the Bank of England base rate plus a margin for your risk, sizing your mortgage payments before you apply. Our dedicated guide to commercial mortgage rates breaks down what moves yours.

Three choices change the number. A fixed rate buys certainty over a set rate period, where a variable rate or tracker may start lower but moves with the base rate. Owner-occupier pricing often beats investment for the same building, and a standard commercial unit prices keener than specialist property. Watch the early repayment charge if you may refinance inside the term. We quote the mortgage deal that fits.

For an owner-occupier deal, the funder is really underwriting your business. They want the trade to service the loan, so their lending criteria centre on cashflow, not the bricks.

Expect two to three years of accounts, recent management figures, and bank statements. A clean, well-presented file moves faster than a pile of documents the underwriter has to chase, and that packaging is where we earn the timeline back. If your accounts have a wrinkle, a dip in one year or a change of entity, we flag it up front and place it with a funder who looks past it.

You do not need a full document pack to start. Tell us the property, the loan size you need, how you will hold it and how you will repay it. The application process then runs in clear stages.

We shortlist funders and package the case; you choose a route before anything is submitted. The chosen bank instructs a RICS valuation, underwrites the business or the rent, and issues an offer; legals run alongside, and funds release on completion. What slows it down is rarely the funder: valuation delays, missing documents and slow solicitors, so we push every party from day one. Most commercial lending falls outside Financial Conduct Authority rules because it is business activity; where a case is regulated, an authorised adviser confirms the position on the call.