Specialist business mortgage broker for Grangemouth, Falkirk firms

Grangemouth Port is one of the UK's main ports, with the largest container terminal in Scotland, and about 9 million tonnes of cargo pass through the docks each year. Inter-modal freight facilities elsewhere in the town use its motorway connections. That makes logistics the obvious owner-occupier sector: hauliers, freight forwarders, warehousing firms, plant hire and the engineers and fabricators who maintain port and industrial equipment.

Whisky is also present. The Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society's Soap Works, established in 1897 and once the largest works of its kind in Scotland, was demolished in November 2005 to make way for a Whyte & Mackay blending and bottling plant. Smaller suppliers to the drinks, packaging and transport trades buy units and yards nearby. Our page on owner-occupier mortgages explains how lenders assess a company buying the building it works from.

For decades the economy of the town and the wider Falkirk area centred on the Grangemouth Refinery, owned by Ineos, which employed a significant workforce and was one of the largest of its kind in Europe until it closed in spring 2025. For a local company looking to buy premises, that history matters in two ways.

First, a lender will want to understand your customer base. If a large share of past turnover came from refinery work, expect questions about what has replaced it, and have recent management accounts and a current order book ready. Second, a valuer will consider how easily a unit could be re-let or sold to another occupier. A flexible, well-maintained industrial building with good road access to the motorway network is the easiest to fund, whatever has changed nearby.

Lenders active in owner-occupier lending typically advance 70 to 75% of the price or valuation, whichever is lower, with up to 80% for strong cases, at an indicative 6.0 to 7.5% a year over 5 to 25 years, subject to status, accounts and valuation. Arrangement fees are usually 1 to 2%.

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax is charged by Revenue Scotland at 0% up to £150,000, 1% on the next £100,000 and 5% above £250,000 on non-residential purchases (rates as at October 2026; check the current rates before you buy).

Illustrative example. A haulage company buys a yard with a warehouse near the docks for £550,000. A 75% loan is £412,500, so the deposit is £137,500. LBTT on £550,000 is £16,000, bringing the cash needed to around £153,500 before fees. Our guide to stamp duty on commercial property has the full bands.

Falkirk Council is the planning authority. Under Scots law the solicitors conclude missives and the lender registers a standard security with Registers of Scotland. A loan to a limited company for its trading premises is unregulated and falls outside the FCA's regulated mortgage perimeter; where a deal would be regulated, such as 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. See our Falkirk council area page for the surrounding towns.