Business Property Lending by Region: Where UK Companies Secured Premises Finance in 2026

Business property lending looks busy on paper. The number of company charges secured on property rose by almost a fifth in a year, across every nation and English region. If you own a trading company and plan to buy the building you work from, that sounds like good news. Look closer at who is borrowing, and from which type of lender, and the picture for an operating business is more specific than the headline.

Business Mortgages Broker, a trading name of Lenzie Consulting Ltd (company number 08174104), arranges business mortgages for companies buying or refinancing their own premises. We are a broker, not a lender. Commercial lending to a limited company is unregulated and falls outside the FCA’s regulated mortgage perimeter. Where a deal would be regulated, for example lending to a sole trader or individual, or a property where the borrower or a close family member will live in part of it, we refer it to an appropriately authorised firm.

In this episode, Georgina takes the regional charges map apart and asks what it means for a company about to apply.

Where is new business property lending happening in 2026?

Every figure below comes from the Business Property Lending Monitor, Business Mortgages Broker, Q3 2026. We build it each quarter from public registers, and the full series, including council area and town tables, is free on the Business Property Lending Monitor page.

The lending side uses the Companies House charges register. When a company gives a lender security over property, the charge is filed at Companies House (on form MR01 or an equivalent) within 21 days of creation, and for land in England and Wales it is also registered at HM Land Registry. We count a charge when its particulars name at least one property postcode.

The national numbers:

• 157,021 property-linked company charges were created in the 12 months to September 2026, according to Companies House, up 19.5% on the 131,362 in the 12 months before.
• That is 25,659 more charges, derived by us (157,021 minus 131,362).
• The highest complete quarter in the series was the second quarter of 2026, with 40,399 charges. The third quarter of 2026, at 37,772, is provisional because filings can arrive up to 21 days after a charge is created.

What a charge is, and what it is not

A charge is security, not necessarily a new mortgage. It can secure a term loan, but also an overdraft, a guarantee or a refinance of existing debt. Companies House filings since 2013 do not state the amount secured, so these are counts, never pounds lent. Read them as a measure of how often companies are pledging property to lenders, not of how much money is changing hands.

Region by region: the charges map

Each charge is placed in the council area of every postcode it names, then rolled up to regions and nations. Unlike the sales data, the charges register covers the whole UK, so Scotland and Northern Ireland are included. The final column is our derived share: trading-business charges divided by all charges in that region.

Region	Charges, 12 months to Sept 2026	Change on prior 12 months	Charges taken by trading businesses	Trading share (derived)
London	25,758	+16.8%	1,179	4.6%
North West	24,643	+20.7%	1,166	4.7%
South East	18,537	+20.4%	1,470	7.9%
Yorkshire and The Humber	12,877	+19.1%	699	5.4%
West Midlands	12,821	+18.6%	896	7.0%
East of England	12,539	+18.4%	879	7.0%
East Midlands	11,503	+13.1%	740	6.4%
Scotland	10,946	+36.9%	977	8.9%
South West	10,032	+17.7%	1,032	10.3%
North East	8,670	+20.0%	330	3.8%
Wales	6,578	+21.0%	512	7.8%
Northern Ireland	1,033	+12.9%	208	20.1%

Source: Companies House charges register, 12 months to September 2026 against the prior 12 months. Business Property Lending Monitor, Business Mortgages Broker, Q3 2026. A charge naming postcodes in two areas counts once in each, so regional rows are not designed to add up to the national total.

What the table shows:

• Growth everywhere. Every nation and region recorded more charges than a year earlier. Scotland grew fastest at 36.9%, from 7,998 to 10,946; the East Midlands and Northern Ireland grew slowest, at 13.1% and 12.9%.
• Volume is concentrated. London and the North West each recorded more than 24,000 charges, roughly double most other regions.
• Trading companies are a bigger slice in smaller markets. Northern Ireland’s derived trading share of 20.1% (208 of 1,033) is more than three times the national 6.4%. The South West, at 10.3% (1,032 of 10,032), is the highest in England. The North East is lowest at 3.8% (330 of 8,670).

One reading of the trading-share column is that where property investment borrowing is thinner, operating businesses make up more of what lenders see. We would not treat that as a cause; it is a pattern in the counts.

Finding your county or town

The monitor goes below regions to counties, council areas, London boroughs, Northern Ireland districts and towns, and those tables sit on the data page rather than here. For what buying premises involves in your part of the country, including the property tax and how lenders take security there, our pages on business mortgages by location run from the four nations down to individual towns.

Which lender types are registering charges?

We match the lender named on each charge against a maintained list of about 250 lenders and their aliases, then group them by type. Lender names are never published.

• Specialist or challenger bank: 77,989 charges, 49.7%
• Bridging or development lender: 36,307 charges, 23.1%
• High street bank: 16,896 charges, 10.8%
• Other identified lender: 144 charges, 0.1%
• Not classified: 25,685 charges, 16.4%

Source: Companies House, 12 months to September 2026.

Nationally, specialist and challenger banks account for close to half of all property-linked charges, and bridging and development lenders for almost a quarter. High street banks hold a little over one in ten.

The regional splits in the monitor’s data lake differ in ways that matter to a borrower. In Northern Ireland, high street banks hold 30.0% of charges, 19.2 percentage points above the national 10.8% (derived). In Scotland, bridging or development lenders hold 27.9%, and in the North West 27.2%, both above the national 23.1%. In the South West, 21.2% of charges are not classified, the highest of any region.

Our reading is that the type of lender most visible in your region is not necessarily the type that suits an owner-occupier. Bridging and development finance is short-term money for purchases, refurbishments and building schemes; a trading company buying its own premises usually wants a long-term business mortgage instead.

Who is borrowing: investors, developers and trading companies

Each borrower is classed by the SIC codes it files at Companies House.

• Property investment and development companies: 143,401 charges, 91.3% of the total
• Trading businesses: 10,113 charges, 6.4%
• Other (finance, holding and non-trading companies): 2,733 charges, 1.7%
• Unknown: 774 charges, 0.5%

Trading businesses took 10,113 charges in the 12 months to September 2026, up 3.2% on 9,801 the year before, according to Companies House. Strip them out and the remaining charges grew from 121,561 to 146,908, or 20.9% (derived: 157,021 minus 10,113, against 131,362 minus 9,801). In other words, almost all of the growth came from companies that are not operating businesses.

By sector

The largest sectors are property investment and letting (138,682 charges, 88.3%) and property development and construction (4,719, 3.0%). The operating sectors are much smaller, each as a share of all charges:

• Professional and business services: 1,826 (1.2%)
• Hotels, pubs and restaurants: 1,780 (1.1%)
• Health and care: 1,683 (1.1%)
• Retail and motor trade: 1,349 (0.9%)
• Education, leisure and personal services: 1,186 (0.8%)

Source: Companies House, 12 months to September 2026.

What regional lending means for your application

For a director, the practical lesson is that a lender’s appetite for buy to let and development borrowing tells you little about how it will treat an owner-occupier. A business mortgage for a trading company is underwritten on the company’s profits, with the building as security.

What lenders look at

• Accounts: two or three years of filed accounts, management figures for the current year, and debt service cover from earnings. Our guide on how lenders read your accounts explains the adjustments they make.
• Deposit: typically 25 to 30% of the price, since loan to value is typically 70 to 75%, up to 80% for strong cases.
• Sector: pubs, hotels and care homes are valued on trade and priced higher.
• Security and guarantees: a first legal charge over the building, and often a personal guarantee from the directors.

Indicative terms

These bands are indicative, subject to status, accounts and valuation, and not an offer. Lenders price as a margin over Bank Rate, which the Bank of England sets, or as a fixed rate.

• Owner-occupier business mortgage: 6.0 to 7.5% a year
• Trading business such as a pub, hotel or care home: 7.0 to 9.0% a year
• Commercial remortgage (refinance): 6.0 to 8.0% a year
• Business premises bridging: 0.70 to 0.95% a month, 70 to 75% gross
• Term: 5 to 25 years, some lenders to 30; arrangement fees typically 1 to 2%

Illustrative example: a dental practice company buys a £500,000 building. At 75% loan to value the loan is £375,000 and the deposit £125,000. A 1.5% arrangement fee adds £5,625. Our page on how the process works sets out each step from first call to completion.

Questions directors ask about premises finance

What are the current rates for business mortgages?

For an owner-occupier, an indicative 6.0 to 7.5% a year, subject to status, accounts and valuation. Specialist trading sectors and semi-commercial buildings sit higher.

Who is the best commercial lender?

There is no single answer. The right lender depends on your sector, the size of the loan, your accounts and the building. That is why the data groups lenders by type rather than ranking them, and why we never name one.

Which company gives a loan instantly?

No secured commercial lender lends instantly. A business mortgage needs underwriting, a RICS valuation and legal work on the title before funds are released, and nobody can promise a completion date in advance.

Can I personally lend my business money?

Yes, a director can lend money to their own company, usually recorded as a director’s loan. A lender will see it in the accounts and may ask for it to be postponed behind the mortgage. Take tax advice from your accountant; we do not give it.

Talk to us

If your company is thinking about buying or refinancing its premises, speak to Business Mortgages Broker. The business is led by Matt Lenzie, who has 25 years in financial services, raising debt and equity, and around £400m arranged.

All rates, loan to value figures and worked numbers here are indicative or illustrative, not an offer of finance, and depend on status, accounts and valuation. We are not tax, legal or pension advisers.

Business Mortgages Broker is a trading name of Lenzie Consulting Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 08174104, registered office Lynch Farm, Kensworth, Dunstable, LU6 3QZ. We are a finance arranger and introducer, not a lender, and we do not provide financial, legal, tax or pension advice. Business mortgages, commercial mortgages and short-term lending arranged for limited companies and other commercial borrowers are unregulated commercial lending that falls outside the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulated perimeter. Some agreements, for example a regulated mortgage contract or lending to a sole trader or individual, can be regulated; where a transaction would be a regulated agreement or would otherwise require FCA authorisation, we refer it to an appropriately authorised firm.

Sources and method

• Charges: Companies House charges register (MR01 and equivalents), data to 1 October 2026. Headline window: 12 months to September 2026 against the 12 months before.
• A charge counts when it names at least one property postcode. Counts only, never amounts. Companies dissolved before the October 2026 snapshot drop out, so the earliest quarters run slightly low.
• Lender types only, from a matched list of about 250 lenders. Borrower type and sector from SIC 2007 codes.
• Any cut with fewer than 10 records is suppressed.

Attribution:

• Contains HM Land Registry data (c) Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
• Contains public sector information from Companies House licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
• Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
• Compiled by Business Mortgages Broker.