Commercial mortgages. Hold the asset, service the debt properly.

Investment or owner occupied: the split that sets everything

Investment facilities are underwritten on the rent. The lender stresses rental income against the debt service, looks at tenant strength, lease length and asset quality, and sizes the loan from there. Portfolio landlords borrowing through SPVs are the standard customer, not the exception.

Owner occupied facilities are underwritten on your business. Trading accounts, EBITDA and sector outlook set the loan, with the property as security rather than the income source. Often the cheapest way for an established business to stop paying someone else's mortgage in rent.

Semi commercial (a shop with flats above, for instance) sits between the two on pricing and is a market where whole of market access genuinely moves the rate you pay.

Every sector

Hotels, care homes, retail, offices, industrial and warehouse, leisure, agriculture, trading businesses: we arrange term debt across effectively every sector and industry. Sector shapes the lender shortlist and the stress test; it is almost never the reason a good deal fails.

The bridge exit

A large share of our term lending refinances our own bridging and development clients: the refurb is done, the units are let, and the debt should now be priced for stability instead of speed. If you are mid bridge with us, the exit facility gets packaged from the file we already hold. If your bridge is elsewhere and expiring, we can refinance that too.

What does a commercial mortgage cost?

Cost line	Typical range	Notes
Interest rate	from 5.9% pa	Fixed and variable available; driven by asset, covenant, leverage
Lender arrangement fee	1% to 2%	Usually added to the loan
Valuation	Asset specific	Commercial valuations cost more than residential
Legal costs	Both sides yours	Scale with complexity and title
Repayment basis	Interest only or capital and interest	The calculator models both

Indicative ranges based on current whole of market pricing, July 2026.

Serviceability usually bites before LTV: lenders stress the rent or the trading profits against an assumed higher rate, and that stress test sets the maximum loan more often than the 75% cap does. This is exactly what the commercial mortgage calculator shows you when you toggle repayment basis and term.

Commercial investment mortgages

A commercial investment mortgage funds property you let to a tenant rather than occupy yourself, and it is assessed differently from an owner occupier facility in one decisive respect: the lender underwrites the income, not you.

What that means in practice:

• Interest cover is the binding test. Lenders apply an interest cover ratio, stressed at a rate above the pay rate, and if the rental income does not clear it the loan is cut regardless of how much equity you have. On most deals this bites before the loan to value cap does.
• The tenant matters as much as the building. Lease length, break clauses and the covenant strength of the tenant all feed directly into what a lender will offer. A strong covenant on a long lease can move both leverage and pricing.
• Void risk is priced. A single let asset with one tenant carries concentration risk that a multi let does not, and lenders treat them differently even at identical yields.

Commercial buy to let

Commercial buy to let covers semi commercial and mixed use property held for income: a shop with flats above, offices with residential upper parts, or a small parade. It sits between residential buy to let and pure commercial, and it is one of the areas where lender appetite varies most.

The practical point is that the residential and commercial elements are usually valued and stressed separately, and the split between them decides which lender pool your deal falls into. A property that is 60% residential by value is a different proposition from one at 40%, and that boundary is worth establishing before an application goes anywhere.

Coming off a bridge or a development facility

This is the route we spend most of our time on, and it is where the term facility question usually starts.

A completed development or refurbished asset does not automatically qualify for a term facility. A term lender lends against proven income, and until units are let there is nothing to assess. Where a lease is in place at completion, its covenant and the backing behind it determine the offer. Where there is no lease yet, the usual sequence is an exit bridge to stabilise the asset, then the term facility once income is evidenced.

Two further things catch borrowers out. The gross development value that supported the development facility is not the number that supports the term loan, because one is a sales assessment and the other is an income assessment. And many term lenders apply a six month rule before they will lend against improved value.

The full decision is covered in extend, bridge or refinance.