Your Home Finance
Commercial lenders underwrite your business as closely as the building.
Trading history, serviceability and sector appetite carry as much weight as the property. Personal affordability is rarely the number that decides a commercial case.
30+ years
business lending advice
Accounts
read properly
Whole of market
access
Owner-occupier & investment
both
Situation grid
What is the business actually trying to do?
How your case is assessed
How commercial lenders assess a case
Commercial mortgages are decided by underwriters and credit committees rather than automated scoring. That means judgement — and judgement responds to how well the case is evidenced.
Serviceability from the business
For owner-occupiers, lenders test whether trading profit — usually adjusted EBITDA — covers the mortgage payment with headroom. For investment property, they test rental income against the payment, typically wanting cover of around 125–150% depending on tenant strength.
The asset and its sector
Offices, industrial units, retail, care, leisure and semi-commercial premises all attract different appetite and different loan-to-values. Specialist trading assets with limited alternative use are lent on more cautiously than standard commercial space.
Deposit and loan-to-value
Commercial lending typically runs to around 65–75% of value, with owner-occupiers sometimes achieving more where the trade is strong. Deposit source is scrutinised, and additional security or a directors' guarantee is common.
Covenant, lease and tenant quality
On investment cases the tenant is half the decision — lease length, break clauses, rent review terms and the tenant's own accounts. A short unexpired term on a weak covenant changes both the pricing and the term available.
You can't judge commercial appetite from published criteria — we assess how your business and asset are likely to be read before anything is submitted.
Specialist insight
Not every commercial case reads the same way
Specialist trading asset · short accounts history · thin serviceability cover
Higher challenge
Fewer lenders with appetite · lower loan-to-value · projections and directors' guarantees carry more weight, and presentation matters far more.
Standard asset · two to three years' profitable accounts · strong cover
More lender choice
Broader panel including challenger and clearing banks · better pricing and longer terms · owner-occupier cases often achieve higher loan-to-value.
Independent reviews
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Your adviser
Jay Sabine
Expert mortgage adviser specialising in complex cases including adverse credit, self-employed borrowers, and first-time buyers. All advice is tailored to your individual circumstances.
Content reviewed: 3 August 2026
CeMAP awarded by The London Institute of Banking & Finance. Cert CII (MP) awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Specialist in commercial and semi-commercial mortgage lending
Helping clients with complex credit histories for over 30 years · CeMAP, Cert CII (MP) · FCA regulated
“Commercial lenders read the business before they read you. Two companies with identical profits get different answers because one presented the accounts in a way an underwriter could follow.”
Reviewed by Jay Sabine · Mortgage adviser · 30+ years' experience
Lived experience
Mistakes we repeatedly see
Not theory — the patterns that keep good businesses getting the wrong answer.
Presenting accounts that minimise profit
Accounts prepared entirely for tax efficiency show a business that barely makes money. Commercial underwriters need adjusted profit — directors' remuneration, one-off costs and depreciation explained — or they price the risk on the headline figure.
Approaching the business's own bank first and only
The existing relationship is worth using, but one bank's sector appetite is not the market. Clearing banks, challengers and specialist commercial lenders differ enormously on the same asset class.
Ignoring the lease when buying an investment
A property with two years unexpired on a weak covenant is a different asset to one with a ten-year lease to a strong tenant, whatever the yield says. Lenders price the income stream, not the asking price.
Assuming a commercial mortgage moves like a residential one
Valuations are more involved, credit committee adds time, and legal work on commercial titles and leases is heavier. Cases built on residential timescales create pressure that pushes borrowers into bridging unnecessarily.
Real client scenarios
Real commercial lending journeys
Based on genuine cases we've helped with. Personal details have been changed to protect privacy.
Trading business bought its own premises
- Owner-occupier
- Adjusted EBITDA
- Rent replaced
- Completed
Situation
An established manufacturing business paying substantial rent on the unit it had occupied for nine years, offered the freehold by a retiring landlord.
Challenge
Its own bank assessed the statutory accounts at face value, where profit had been reduced by directors' remuneration and a one-off relocation cost, and offered far less than needed.
What changed
We rebuilt serviceability on adjusted EBITDA with the accountant, evidenced the rent being replaced by the mortgage payment, and presented the case to lenders with genuine appetite for light industrial.
Outcome
The freehold was purchased on a term where the monthly payment sat close to the rent previously paid, with the asset now on the company's balance sheet.
Why it worked
The business had always been able to afford it. The accounts needed translating, not improving.
Semi-commercial refinance repriced on the lease
- Shop and two flats
- Lease renegotiated
- Cover improved
- Refinanced
Situation
An investor refinancing a parade unit with a retail tenant and two residential flats above as the existing facility matured.
Challenge
The retail lease had under two years unexpired, which reduced the loan-to-value available and pushed pricing up sharply on a property that was performing well.
What changed
We advised delaying the refinance until a lease renewal was documented, then presented the case with the extended term, strengthened cover and residential income separated out.
Outcome
Refinanced at a materially better loan-to-value and rate than the offer available a few months earlier.
Why it worked
Timing the refinance around the lease, rather than around the maturity date, changed how every lender read the income.
What happens after you get in touch
From first contact to a clear answer
What happens when you get in touch — no hard search at this stage.
- 1
We understand the property, the trade or tenant, the deposit and the accounts you can evidence (no hard search)
- 2
Jay assesses how a lender will read the business — serviceability, sector appetite and asset type
- 3
We agree how the case gets presented: accounts, projections, leases and the deposit source
- 4
If proceeding: terms → valuation → credit committee → legals → completion
Reassurance
- Free initial review — before any hard credit search
- We tell you which sectors and asset types the panel genuinely supports
- Commercial cases are presented once, properly — not shopped around
Before you enquire
What we'll ask you on the first call
Straightforward questions — no hard credit search at this stage.
- What the property is, how it's used, and whether you'll occupy it or let it
- Your last two to three years' accounts position, and anything in them that needs explaining
- Deposit available, where the funds sit, and whether other security is available
- For investment purchases: the tenant, the rent, the unexpired lease term and any break clauses
Advisory promise
When we might tell you to wait
We won't always tell you to apply today.
We may advise waiting where a further set of accounts would transform serviceability, where a lease renewal should be documented before a valuation is instructed, or where the deposit and source of funds need building into a form a credit committee will accept.
Commercial cases are presented to people, and a badly timed submission is remembered. If waiting or restructuring would meaningfully improve the terms available, we'll say so. We give advice — not just applications.
Straight answers
Common questions about commercial mortgages
Our promise
What we'll never do
- Tell you to apply if it won't work
- Send applications everywhere
- Recommend borrowing beyond your budget
- Hide bad news
We don't submit business lending and hope. We present the numbers the way an underwriter needs to read them.
Discuss your commercial mortgage
Tell us about the property, the business and the deposit — we'll assess how a lender is likely to read it.
We don't approach a commercial lender until the serviceability, sector appetite and asset type have been checked against your case.
Commercial decisions go to credit committee, not a scorecard. How the case is presented the first time usually decides the outcome.
£500 adviser fee — payable on completion.
Get Clear, Honest Mortgage Advice — Before You Apply
Free consultation • No credit search • FCA regulated
Struggled to get approved elsewhere? We specialise in complex cases including CCJs, self-employed income, and declined applications. Over 90% of our clients had concerns about their situation before speaking to us.
The Basics
Your Needs
Property
Income
Credit
Step 1 of 5
Related guides
Commercial lending — related decisions
If your decision hinges on one of these questions, these chapters go deeper.
Development finance
Where the project is a build, conversion or major refurbishment.
Open guide →
Bridging loans
When the deadline is short and the exit is a commercial refinance or sale.
Open guide →
HMO mortgages
Multi-let residential assessed on rental cover rather than personal income.
Open guide →
Portfolio landlord mortgages
How lenders view the whole portfolio once you hold four or more properties.
Open guide →