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The exact same office block can be assessed on two entirely different bases depending purely on who's buying it and why – your own business's trading accounts if you're moving in, or a tenant's lease and an Interest Coverage Ratio calculation if you're buying to let. Understanding this genuine fork in the road matters before you assume commercial lending works as a single, uniform process. The Genuine Fork: What You're Actually Buying the Building For Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on the single most important question a lender asks before anything else: will you occupy this property yourself, or let it to someone else? Our Occupier Mortgages page covers the first route; our Investment Mortgages page covers the second – and the genuine answer to this question determines almost everything else about how your application is assessed. How Affordability Is Genuinely Calculated Differently For an occupier purchase, lenders look at your own business's trading accounts, cash flow, and profitability – essentially, can your business afford this mortgage from its own income. For an investment purchase, lenders instead calculate an Interest Coverage Ratio, testing whether the property's rental income comfortably covers theRead more →

Fewer than half of all terminal dilapidations claims survive a Section 18(1) challenge intact, yet a landlord's initial demand can still run into tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds for a single commercial unit. Whether you're a tenant approaching lease end or a landlord considering an investment purchase, understanding this genuinely important clause matters more than most people realise until they're already facing a claim. What a Dilapidations Claim Actually Is Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on a lease obligation that sits entirely outside your mortgage but genuinely affects the real economics of both occupying and investing in commercial property. A schedule of dilapidations is a landlord's statement, usually prepared by a chartered surveyor, listing alleged breaches of a tenant's repairing, decorating, and reinstatement obligations under the lease, with each item costed and referenced to the specific lease clause it relates to. Why Full Repairing and Insuring Leases Genuinely Matter Here Many commercial leases, particularly in London, are granted on a Full Repairing and Insuring basis, meaning the tenant is responsible for all repairs to the property, including the structure, exterior, and interior, and must keep the property inRead more →

An illustrative £30,000 rateable value office in England saw its 2026/27 bill move anywhere from £12,960 to £14,839 depending purely on how the 2026 revaluation affected its specific rateable value – on the same headline multiplier change. If you're budgeting purely around your mortgage payment when buying commercial property, it's worth understanding this genuinely separate, often substantial ongoing cost before you commit. Why Business Rates Are Genuinely Separate From Your Mortgage Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on a cost that sits entirely outside your mortgage but genuinely affects your overall occupational budget just as much. Business rates are calculated on your property's rateable value – the Valuation Office Agency's estimate of the annual rent it could achieve on the open market at a fixed valuation date – multiplied by a specific rate set annually by the government. Why the 2026 Revaluation Genuinely Matters Right Now It's worth knowing that a full business rates revaluation took effect from 1 April 2026, based on rental values as of 1 April 2024, meaning many properties have seen their rateable value shift considerably, regardless of what's happened to their actual sale price or mortgage terms.Read more →

£33 billion of UK commercial property loans are expected to mature and require refinancing in 2026 alone. If your fixed rate was arranged in 2019-2021, when rates sat considerably lower than today, understanding exactly what genuinely happens when it ends – and why starting the process too late genuinely costs you negotiating power – matters more than many borrowers realise until it's already upon them. Why This Genuinely Isn't a Normal Refinancing Cycle Our Commercial Remortgage page covers refinancing generally; this page focuses specifically on the genuine gap many borrowers face between the rate environment their facility was originally underwritten in and the one it's now maturing into. A significant number of facilities taken out during 2019-2021, when rates were considerably lower, are now approaching maturity against a genuinely different lending landscape. Why a Facility That Easily Passed Its Original Stress Test Can Fail at Renewal Most commercial lenders assess affordability against a stressed interest rate, commonly several percentage points above the actual rate you'd pay, to confirm the property could still service the debt if rates moved against you. It's worth understanding that a facility comfortably passing this test at origination, when both actual and stressed rates sat lower,Read more →

If your franchise agreement is silent on renewal rights, you genuinely have no automatic right to renew at all under UK law – franchise renewal isn't a statutory entitlement here the way it can be in some US states, it's entirely down to what your specific contract says. If your agreement is approaching its end, understanding exactly what happens to your commercial mortgage, not just your franchise, matters considerably. Why Your Mortgage and Your Franchise Agreement Are Genuinely Separate Things Our Franchise Mortgages page covers how a lender assesses your franchise agreement's strength and remaining term at the point of application; this page focuses specifically on what genuinely happens once that same agreement approaches its end without renewal. It's worth understanding clearly: your mortgage is secured against the property itself, which you continue to own regardless of what happens to your franchise agreement – the two are legally separate, even though they were closely connected when you first applied. Why UK Franchisees Don't Have an Automatic Right to Renew Most UK franchise agreements run for a fixed term, commonly 5 to 10 years, and renewal is genuinely not automatic – you're typically responsible for proactively requesting it, often with 6Read more →

Unlike residential buy-to-let, where Section 24 famously restricts individual landlords to a basic-rate tax credit rather than full mortgage interest relief, this restriction genuinely never applied to commercial property at all. If you've absorbed the residential rules and assumed they apply here too, it's worth understanding the genuinely different starting point commercial ownership actually has before comparing your options. The Genuine Correction Worth Making First Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on the genuine tax comparison between owning commercial property personally versus through a limited company. Individuals, sole traders, and partnerships have always been able to deduct mortgage interest on commercial property in full as a normal business expense – there's no equivalent to the residential Section 24 restriction to factor in here, which meaningfully changes the calculation compared with what many residential landlords have come to assume. The Core Rate Comparison Worth Understanding Personal ownership means rental or trading profit from the property is taxed at your Income Tax rate, up to 45% for additional-rate taxpayers. Company ownership means the same profit is taxed at Corporation Tax rates instead – 19% on profits up to £50,000, tapering through marginal relief, andRead more →

Sale and leaseback can release up to 100% of a property's value, compared with roughly 60% typically achievable through conventional mortgage-backed financing – a genuinely significant difference if your business needs to unlock the full capital tied up in premises you still need to trade from. Understanding how this actually works, and a real recent accounting change worth knowing about, matters before you assume this is automatically the right route. What Sale and Leaseback Actually Involves Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on an alternative to conventional borrowing worth understanding if your business owns its premises outright, or with a small remaining mortgage. In a sale and leaseback transaction, you sell your freehold interest in a property you currently occupy to a buyer, then immediately lease the same property back, becoming a tenant paying rent rather than a lender's mortgage payment. Why the Capital Release Is Genuinely Different From a Mortgage Our Occupier Mortgages page covers the conventional route – borrowing against premises you trade from, typically up to 65-75% loan-to-value. Sale and leaseback works fundamentally differently: rather than borrowing against the property's value, you're genuinely selling it, which is exactly whyRead more →

If you've been planning around a widely-reported 2027 deadline for commercial EPC ratings to reach C, it's worth knowing the government's June 2026 interim response actually dropped this milestone entirely – the genuinely current requirement is EPC B by 2031, and only for buildings over 1,000 square metres. Understanding what's actually changed matters considerably before you buy, refinance, or let a commercial property based on outdated information. What the Rules Actually Require Right Now Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards and why they genuinely matter to your mortgage, not just your energy bill. Since 2018, it's been unlawful to grant a new lease on a commercial property rated F or G, and since April 2023, this requirement extended to all existing tenancies too – a minimum E rating is genuinely required to legally let any commercial property right now, regardless of when the tenancy began. Why the Widely-Expected 2027 Deadline Has Been Scrapped This is genuinely important to understand clearly: earlier government consultations proposed an interim EPC C requirement from 2027, rising to EPC B by 2030, and a considerable amount of existing commercial property contentRead more →

If a personal guarantee is structured as joint and several, a lender can pursue any single director for the full amount owed – not a fair 50/50 split – and they'll typically go after whoever has the most accessible personal assets. Before you sign one to secure a commercial mortgage, understanding exactly what you're agreeing to matters considerably more than most directors realise at the time. Why Lenders Ask for a Personal Guarantee at All Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on the personal guarantee most lenders require alongside a commercial mortgage to a limited company. Limited liability protects you from the company's debts generally, but a guarantee is genuinely your own personal debt – a separate contractual promise you create the moment you sign it, sitting entirely outside the protection your company structure otherwise provides. Who's Typically Asked to Sign One Lenders commonly require personal guarantees from directors holding 20-25% or more of the company's shareholding, and sometimes from minority directors too, depending on the specific lender and facility size. Our Company Director Mortgages page covers the wider financial picture directors need to consider alongside this, since a guarantee genuinely sitsRead more →

Two commercial buildings generating exactly £120,000 a year in rent can be valued at £2,400,000 or £1,500,000 – a genuine £900,000 difference from identical income, purely because the yield a valuer applies differs by a few percentage points. Understanding why this happens matters considerably before you assume a commercial valuation works anything like a residential one. Why Commercial Valuation Genuinely Works Differently Our UK Commercial Finance hub covers the wider lending landscape; this page focuses specifically on why the income capitalisation method used for most commercial property produces such genuinely different results for buildings that look almost identical on paper. The core formula is straightforward: annual rental income divided by the yield, or capitalisation rate, produces the capital value. It's the yield itself where all the genuine variation lives. The Worked Example Worth Understanding Consider two buildings, each generating £120,000 a year in rent. Capitalised at a 5% yield, the value is £120,000 divided by 0.05, which equals £2,400,000. Capitalised at 8% instead, the same £120,000 produces just £1,500,000 – a £900,000 difference from an identical income stream. This is worth sitting with properly: the rent hasn't changed at all, yet the valuation has moved by nearly 40%. What ActuallyRead more →