Specialist commercial mortgage broker for firms in Inverclyde, Scotland

The district's economy grew out of the river. Greenock built ships, refined sugar and spun wool, and for a period relied heavily on electronics manufacture. Those trades have gone, and the work that replaced them is call centre business, insurance, banking and shipping export. Marine skills have not disappeared, though: shipbuilding continues at Ferguson Marine Engineering in Port Glasgow, ship repair carries on at the Garvel Drydock in Greenock's Great Harbour, and container freight moves through the Ocean Terminal.

That mix shapes what local firms want to own. Marine engineers, fabricators and repair contractors look for workshops and yards near the water. Service companies buy small office suites, and retailers, cafes and trades buy high-street units, sometimes with a flat above. A lender values each of these on how easily another occupier could use the building, so a plain, adaptable unit tends to be the easiest to fund. Our page on owner-occupier mortgages sets out how lenders judge a company buying the property it occupies.

Scotland replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax with Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, collected by Revenue Scotland. For non-residential property the tax is charged in slices: 0% on the first £150,000, 1% from £150,001 to £250,000 and 5% on anything above £250,000 (source: Revenue Scotland; rates as at October 2026; check the current rates before you buy). The tax is paid from the company's own cash, because lenders do not add it to the loan.

Illustrative example. A marine services firm buys a freehold workshop in Port Glasgow for £280,000. A 75% loan is £210,000, so the deposit is £70,000. LBTT comes to £2,500 (1% of £100,000 plus 5% of £30,000), meaning roughly £72,500 in cash before legal and valuation fees. Indicative pricing for an owner-occupier is 6.0 to 7.5% a year, subject to status, accounts and valuation, with terms of 5 to 25 years. Our guide to stamp duty on commercial property compares the Scottish bands with the rest of the UK.

Inverclyde Council is the planning authority for the whole area. Before a lender releases funds, its solicitor will want to see that the building's current use is lawful, which matters on the waterfront where many sites have changed use more than once since the shipyards closed.

The purchase runs under Scots law. Your solicitor and the seller's exchange missives, the letters that form the contract, and once they conclude the deal binds both sides, so the loan offer needs to be in hand first. The lender takes a standard security over the property, registered in the Land Register of Scotland, which Registers of Scotland maintains. Many lenders also ask the directors for a personal guarantee. 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. For the wider picture, see our business mortgages in Scotland page.

Yes. A business that bought its unit some years ago may want to move off an expiring deal, release equity to fund new equipment, or consolidate borrowing onto the building. Lenders look at the same things as on a purchase: trading accounts, the value of the property and whether the business comfortably covers the repayments. Indicative commercial remortgage pricing is 6.0 to 8.0% a year, subject to status, accounts and valuation. Our remortgaging business premises page covers the process.