Specialist commercial mortgage broker for trading companies across the South West of England

Three areas do most of the heavy lifting. Bristol, the M4 corridor and south east Dorset are the most productive parts of the region, and Bristol alone accounts for a quarter of the region's economy. Aeronautics underpin the city: Airbus UK, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems manufacture at Filton, and that work supports a wider chain of machining, composites, testing and inspection firms that need workshop and light industrial space.

Gross value added splits 69.9% services, 28.1% production and 2.0% agriculture. That production share is a reminder that this is not only a holiday economy: many of those production businesses occupy industrial units and workshops they could own rather than rent. Away from the cities, dairy farming is especially important in Dorset and Devon, and tourism matters across the whole region, which sustains hotels, guest houses, cafes and the food and drink suppliers that serve them.

Owner-occupier purchases here tend to fall into five groups, and a lender reads each one differently.

• Industrial and workshop units: aerospace and engineering supply chain businesses around Filton and along the M4 into Swindon, and estates on the edge of Exeter, Plymouth and Gloucester.
• Trade counters: builders' merchants, plumbing and electrical wholesalers and agricultural suppliers serving a large rural area from market towns.
• Offices: professional, creative and technology firms in Bristol, Bath, Cheltenham and Swindon.
• Retail and hospitality: shops, restaurants, pubs and hotels in the tourist economy from the Jurassic Coast to Cornwall. A pub or hotel is a trading business valued partly on its trade, with indicative pricing of 7.0 to 9.0% a year, subject to status, accounts and valuation.
• Healthcare and professional practices: dental, veterinary and medical premises, which lenders often treat as a sector of their own; see finance for franchises and professional practices.

Seasonal trade is a common question in coastal areas. Lenders look at a full year of accounts rather than the summer peak, so we present the figures on that basis from the start. For a standard owner-occupier, indicative pricing is 6.0 to 7.5% a year, typically at 70 to 75% loan to value (up to 80% for strong cases) over 5 to 25 years, subject to status, accounts and valuation. Our page on owner-occupier mortgages sets out the criteria in full.

Every part of the region is in England, so a purchase pays Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), collected by HMRC. Non-residential and mixed-use property is taxed in slices: 0% up to £150,000, 2% from £150,001 to £250,000 and 5% above £250,000 (HMRC, gov.uk; rates as at October 2026; check the current rates before you buy). The tax is paid in cash alongside the deposit, and our guide to stamp duty on commercial property works through an example.

The legal side follows English law. The lender takes a mortgage by legal charge over the property, and the transfer and the charge are both registered with HM Land Registry, which covers England and Wales. If you are weighing a site in Gloucestershire against one across the Severn in Wales, note that a Welsh purchase pays Land Transaction Tax instead, at different bands.

We start with your accounts, the property and the deposit, and tell you plainly whether the deal is likely to work before anyone pays for a valuation. Lender appetite varies by sector and by location, from a rural trade counter to a coastal hotel, so we approach only the lenders active in owner-occupier lending whose criteria fit. We then manage the valuation, the credit questions and the solicitors through to completion. Arrangement fees are typically 1 to 2% of the loan.

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. That matters in the region's market towns, where a shop with a flat above is common. For the wider picture see business mortgages across England, or our page on the neighbouring South East, which shares the M4 corridor.