Specialist commercial mortgage broker for trading companies in North Lanarkshire, Scotland

Heavy industry built these towns. Coatbridge was the "Iron Burgh", and Motherwell was the steel capital of Scotland until the Ravenscraig works closed in 1992. Today the economy is more mixed. Motherwell has business parks such as Strathclyde Business Park and employers including William Grant & Sons and Volvo Construction Equipment/Rokbak; Coatbridge is the site of Scotland's inland container base; and Cumbernauld's industrial estates house A.G. Barr's world headquarters and the Outlander film studios at Wardpark.

Around those names sit many smaller firms: engineers, fabricators, hauliers, wholesalers, trade suppliers and service businesses. Their usual purchase is an industrial unit, a warehouse, a yard with offices or a town-centre shop. Our page on owner-occupier mortgages sets out how a lender assesses a company buying the building it uses.

The area sits in Scotland's Central Belt on the watershed between east and west, with the Clyde to the west and the River Almond flowing east. The motorways that cross it, among them the M8, M73, M74 and M80, connect Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling, and the West Coast Main Line runs through Motherwell. That makes the area a natural base for distribution and logistics.

For a lender, a unit near a motorway junction is often easier to value and to re-let if the business ever moves, which supports the loan. Former industrial land is a different matter: much of the area was mined, so a lender's solicitor may ask for a mining report and check ground conditions before agreeing terms.

Lenders active in owner-occupier lending typically advance 70 to 75% of the purchase price or valuation, whichever is lower, with up to 80% for strong cases. Indicative pricing is 6.0 to 7.5% a year for owner-occupiers, subject to status, accounts and valuation, with terms of 5 to 25 years and arrangement fees usually 1 to 2%.

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax applies, collected by Revenue Scotland: 0% on the first £150,000, 1% from £150,001 to £250,000 and 5% above £250,000 (rates as at October 2026; check the current rates before you buy).

Illustrative example. A haulage company buys a freehold warehouse with yard near the M8 for £600,000. A 75% loan is £450,000 and the deposit £150,000. LBTT is £18,500, so the company needs roughly £168,500 in cash before fees. See our stamp duty on commercial property guide for the full bands.

North Lanarkshire Council is the planning authority throughout. A lender's solicitor will confirm the building's current use is lawful before funds are released. The purchase is concluded by missives under Scots law, and the lender takes a standard security registered with Registers of Scotland, usually alongside a personal guarantee from the directors.

Companies that already own their premises can refinance to move off an expiring deal or release equity, at indicative rates of 6.0 to 8.0% a year, subject to status, accounts and valuation; our remortgaging business premises page explains how. 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. See our Scotland business mortgages page for the national picture.