Specialist commercial mortgage broker for firms in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland

This is commuter country rather than an industrial heartland, so the companies that buy their own buildings here are mostly local service businesses. Think of dental and medical practices, veterinary surgeries, opticians, children's nurseries, accountants and solicitors, cafés and restaurants, independent shops and the trades firms that keep the suburbs running. A smaller number of manufacturers and distributors occupy units around Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs.

Many high-street buildings in the area combine a shop or surgery on the ground floor with a flat above. Lenders treat that as semi-commercial property, with its own loan to value limits and pricing, which our page on semi-commercial premises explains. Professional practices have their own route too: a lender will often look at the practice's fee income and goodwill alongside the bricks and mortar, as set out in our guide to practice and franchise mortgages.

Because the council area is in Scotland, the purchase pays Land and Buildings Transaction Tax rather than stamp duty, and it is collected by Revenue Scotland. Non-residential LBTT is 0% on the first £150,000, 1% from £150,001 to £250,000 and 5% above £250,000 (Revenue Scotland; rates as at October 2026; check the current rates before you buy). The return and the tax are due within 30 days, and no lender will add the tax to the loan.

Illustrative example. A dental company buys a ground-floor surgery in Bearsden for £400,000. A 75% loan is £300,000, so the deposit is £100,000. LBTT comes to £8,500, which means the business needs about £108,500 in cash before legal and valuation fees. Our guide to stamp duty on commercial property compares the Scottish bands with England and Wales.

The legal route is Scots law. The contract is concluded by missives exchanged between the two solicitors, and once missives are concluded the deal binds you, so the loan offer should be settled first. The lender then takes a standard security over the building, registered in the Land Register of Scotland, which Registers of Scotland maintains.

East Dunbartonshire Council is the planning authority, run from Tom Johnston House in Kirkintilloch. A lender's solicitor will want to see that the building's current use is lawful for your trade, which matters when a shop becomes a café, a house becomes a clinic or a unit gains a trade counter. Sorting a change of use before you conclude missives saves a stalled completion later.

On terms, lenders active in owner-occupier lending typically advance 70 to 75% of the lower of price and valuation, with up to 80% for strong cases. Indicative pricing is 6.0 to 7.5% a year, over 5 to 25 years, with arrangement fees usually 1 to 2%, all indicative, subject to status, accounts and valuation. Lending to a limited company for its own premises is unregulated and falls outside the FCA's regulated mortgage perimeter, and 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. Our Scotland business mortgages page covers the national picture.