Bournemouth Commercial Mortgage FAQ

A commercial mortgage is long-term debt secured against income-producing or owner-occupied commercial property, offices, retail, industrial-warehouse, semi-commercial shop+flats, healthcare, hospitality and trading-business premises. In the Bournemouth market for mid-2026, typical facility size 150K to 10M pounds; LTV 65 to 75 percent; term 5 to 25 years; rate 6.0 to 9.0 percent pa. Repayment is normally monthly capital and interest on a reducing balance. The lender takes a first legal charge over the property and usually a personal or limited company guarantee. See our commercial mortgage services for the full eight-product breakdown across owner-occupier, investment, semi-commercial, portfolio refinance and trading-business.

No. Commercial mortgages are unregulated lending and fall outside the FCA's regulated mortgage perimeter. We are not FCA-authorised because the products we arrange are unregulated by definition. We place owner-occupier, investment, semi-commercial (where the borrower does not occupy the residential element), portfolio refinance, trading-business, commercial remortgage, commercial bridging and second-charge commercial. Regulated cases (semi-commercial where the borrower occupies the residential element, regulated bridging, residential mortgages, consumer buy-to-let) are referred to an FCA-authorised firm. Most commercial mortgage brokers operate the same way, because the underlying products do not require FCA authorisation.

Three primary audiences and our week splits roughly evenly across all three. Owner-occupier business buyers, buying or refinancing the freehold of premises their own business trades from. Westbourne and Talbot Woods dental and allied-healthcare, Lansdowne and Old Christchurch Road professional services, West Cliff and East Cliff heritage hotel operators, Aviation Park and Bournemouth Airport Business Park industrial trade-business owners, healthcare ancillary across the Royal Bournemouth Hospital catchment, independent retail operators on The Square, Westbourne, Westover Road and Boscombe. Commercial property investors and landlords, buying or refinancing let commercial assets, single-let or multi-let, sometimes a portfolio of five or more, including the BCP holiday-let portfolios that lenders price as a distinct segment and the dense Talbot Village and Talbot Heath student-led HMO portfolios off the Bournemouth University and Arts University Bournemouth demand pool. Trading-business owner-operators, hotels, restaurants, pubs, day nurseries, care homes, buying the operational property and the going concern together. The product, the lender pool and the underwriting style are different across the three; the broker discipline is the same.

A commercial mortgage funds the purchase or refinance of a completed, income-producing or owner-occupied commercial property. Funds drawn in a single tranche at completion. Term 5 to 25 years. Monthly capital and interest. Development finance funds construction or heavy refurbishment and is drawn in tranches against build-progress monitoring, with interest rolled or serviced and capital repaid at exit (sale or refinance) typically 12 to 24 months later. Bridge-to-let sits in between for short-term value-add, buy a vacant or under-let asset, refurbish or re-tenant, then term out onto a long-term commercial mortgage once stabilised. A Citrus Building mixed-use conversion or a vacant Old Christchurch Road retail-to-Class E reposition is a typical bridge-to-let candidate. We broker commercial mortgages and bridge-to-let; we do not place pure ground-up development finance.

Typically 25 to 30 percent for owner-occupier and commercial investment. Semi-commercial often 25 percent. Trading-business (West Cliff heritage hotel, Boscombe Spa Village restaurant-with-rooms, Talbot Woods care home) sits tighter at 30 to 40 percent, reflecting the specialist underwrite. The deposit must be genuine equity and traceable: accumulated retained profit in the trading limited company, sale proceeds of another asset, family gift with a written declaration, or pension drawdown if structured cleanly. Lenders will not accept a second loan secured against the same property as the deposit. Personal guarantees do not count as equity. On owner-occupier deals where EBITDA cover is comfortable, occasional 80 percent LTV products exist but pricing is materially wider, usually not the right answer.

For owner-occupier, two years of clean filed accounts is the comfortable minimum. We routinely place deals with 12 to 18 months trading where the sector is well understood, dental, GP, pharmacy, established skilled trades, regulated professions, and the Westbourne and Talbot Woods healthcare cluster where the underlying contracts are visible. The lender wants to see growing turnover, stable margins and a credible business case for the freehold purchase. For commercial investment the test is tenant covenant and lease length, not borrower trading history, a five-year-old single-asset SPV with a JPMorgan-adjacent professional services covenant on the Lansdowne corridor or a national distribution covenant on Aviation Park prices well. Allica Bank, HTB, Cambridge and Counties and the specialist desks have meaningful flexibility on borrower history that high-street commercial desks will not entertain on the same case.

Yes, and most commercial mortgages in the UK are written into limited companies. For commercial investment, a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) limited company is the standard structure: a single asset or portfolio held in a clean SPV with the SIC code 68209 (real-estate-related activities). For owner-occupier, the borrower is usually the trading limited company itself, with the property held on its balance sheet. Trading-business mortgages can be structured either way, into the trading company or into a separate property-holding limited company that leases the property back to the operating business. Lenders price both routes; the choice depends on tax efficiency, lender appetite and exit planning. We model the alternatives at indicative-terms stage.

Mid-2026 ranges by product type, all inside the 6.0 to 9.0 percent pa band. Owner-occupier on strong covenants in defensive sectors (Westbourne dental, Talbot Woods care home, Lansdowne professional offices): 6.0 to 7.5 percent pa. Commercial investment with prime tenant on a long lease, including JPMorgan-adjacent professional services on the Lansdowne corridor and national distribution covenants on Aviation Park B8 logistics: 6.5 to 8.0 percent pa. Semi-commercial shop+flat across Old Christchurch Road, Westbourne and Southbourne: 7.0 to 8.0 percent pa. Trading-business (West Cliff and East Cliff heritage hotel, Boscombe Spa Village hospitality, Talbot Woods care home): 7.5 to 9.0 percent pa. HMO portfolio refinance across Talbot Village and Talbot Heath off the Bournemouth University catchment: 7.0 to 8.5 percent pa. BCP holiday-let portfolio through Cumberland Building Society: 6.5 to 7.8 percent pa on stabilised three-year occupancy. Drivers: LTV, EBITDA or ICR / DSCR cover, lease length, tenant covenant, sector and borrower track record.

Arrangement fee: 1 to 2 percent of the facility, often added to the loan rather than paid up-front. RICS Red Book valuation fee: 1,500 to 8,000 pounds depending on asset complexity, sector-specialist (West Cliff heritage hotel, Aviation Park multi-let industrial, Talbot Woods care home, listed-building work in the East Cliff or West Cliff conservation areas, multi-asset BCP holiday-let portfolio) and large investment lots cost more. Legal fees: both sides, your solicitor 2,500 to 8,000 pounds typical for commercial conveyancing, the lender's solicitor recharged at cost 1,500 to 4,000 pounds. Broker fee: usually included in the arrangement fee with no extra charge to the borrower; on complex specialist cases a separate broker fee is sometimes agreed. Exit / redemption fee: some 5-year fixes carry early-repayment charges of 3 to 5 percent in years 1 to 2, tapering. Total fee cost typically lands at 2 to 3 percent of the facility.

Yes, Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) applies to commercial property purchases in England, including Bournemouth and the wider BCP unitary. The non-residential bands run 0 percent on the first 150,000 pounds, 2 percent on the next 100,000 pounds, and 5 percent on the balance above 250,000 pounds. There is no first-time-buyer relief, no second-property surcharge and no annual tax on enveloped dwellings issue (commercial does not engage ATED). Mixed-use property, a semi-commercial shop with a flat above on Old Christchurch Road, Westbourne or Southbourne, is taxed entirely on the non-residential rates if the commercial element is genuine, which is materially cheaper than residential stamp duty. SDLT is paid by the buyer at completion through the solicitor. SDLT is a cost the lender will not finance, it must come from your equity.

Indicative terms within 48 hours of a complete enquiry. Full completion typically 4 to 8 weeks for mainstream owner-occupier, commercial investment and semi-commercial. 6 to 10 weeks for trading-business cases (West Cliff heritage hotel, Boscombe Spa Village hospitality, Talbot Woods care home) and HMO portfolio refinance reflecting the multi-property redemption sequencing across the Talbot Village and Talbot Heath BU catchment. The critical-path item is almost always the RICS Red Book valuation. Faster turnaround is possible on clean owner-occupier deals, fastest recent completion was 29 working days from initial enquiry on an Aviation Park (BH23) B8 logistics acquisition, where the borrower had filed accounts ready, a tight legal pack and the lender had recent comparable approvals on file at the same south-coast valuer.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Red Book is the global standard for property valuation. Every commercial mortgage lender requires a Red Book valuation by a RICS-registered surveyor on its panel before it will draw down funds. The valuer inspects the property, reviews leases and tenant covenants, examines comparable evidence in the local market, considers the physical condition, and reports on market value, vacant possession value, and (for trading-business) sometimes goodwill value separately. The lender lends against this figure, not against the price the buyer is paying or the seller is asking. Aggressive valuation assumptions are the most common reason commercial deals stall at credit committee. South-coast valuers cost 1,500 to 8,000 pounds depending on asset complexity.

Yes, and you need a solicitor experienced in commercial property and commercial finance, not your residential conveyancer. The lender instructs its own solicitor to act on the loan documentation; you instruct your solicitor to act on the property purchase or refinance. The two solicitors negotiate the facility agreement, the first legal charge, the debenture, the personal guarantee, the security pack, conditions precedent and CPSE replies. Standard commercial conveyancing runs three to four weeks from instruction; complex multi-asset cases longer. Legal fees both sides typically 4,000 to 12,000 pounds combined. We can recommend Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole commercial property solicitors who are familiar with the lender desks on our panel, which materially helps the timeline.

Owner-occupier: two years of filed accounts, current management figures, a six-month projection, deposit proof, identity and address verification, the property sale memorandum, source-of-funds documents. Commercial investment: the lease, tenant covenant pack (tenant's accounts where relevant), rent roll, occupancy history, the SPV pack (incorporation, beneficial ownership, accounts if seasoned), deposit proof, identity. Trading-business: sector-specific evidence on top of the owner-occupier pack, CQC inspection reports for care, Ofsted for nursery, NHS contract value for dental, occupancy and ADR for hotel, barrelage and licence for pub. Holiday-let portfolio: three-year occupancy and ADR by unit, seasonality split, agency or self-managed model, business rates evidence. We send a tailored document checklist on the first call.

One planning authority covers the entire Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole commercial market. BCP Council is the unitary planning authority (formed in 2019 from the three former local authorities) and the Public Access portal sits at publicaccess.bcpcouncil.gov.uk. The portal covers the full BH1 to BH10 city footprint plus BH23 Hurn at Bournemouth Airport, from the Town Centre and The Square, Lansdowne, West Cliff, East Cliff and Westover Road through Westbourne, Charminster, Boscombe and Pokesdown, Southbourne, Iford and Tuckton, Talbot Village and Talbot Woods, Bournemouth Airport at Hurn and the wider Christchurch and Poole fringe. Filter by application type "Full" and use Class E(a) to E(g), Sui Generis (hotel, pub, hot-food takeaway) or C4 / Sui Generis (HMO) to surface commercial-relevant decisions. Where a property purchase depends on a planning consent, lenders want sight of the decision notice and any conditions before drawdown.

The full BH postcode footprint that touches the Bournemouth commercial market plus the wider BCP travel-to-work area. BH1 covers East Cliff, Lansdowne and the central CBD. BH2 covers central Bournemouth, The Square and West Cliff. BH3 covers Talbot Woods and Winton. BH4 covers Westbourne. BH5 covers Boscombe. BH6 covers Southbourne. BH7 covers Pokesdown and Iford. BH8 covers Charminster, Queens Park and the Kings Park corridor. BH9 and BH10 cover Talbot Village, Talbot Heath, Northbourne, Kinson and the Bournemouth University catchment. BH23 covers Hurn and Bournemouth Airport. We also cover the wider Christchurch and Poole sides of the BCP unitary, which sit inside the same regional lender pool.

The Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) anchors one of the largest seaside conference economies on the south coast, alongside the Pavilion, Winter Gardens area and Westover Road leisure spine, supported by c. 5M visitor nights a year across BCP. The lender pool reads the BIC conference economy as a structural demand floor on West Cliff (BH2, BH4) and East Cliff (BH1) heritage hotel stock, with year-round corporate-conference and seasonal-leisure mix improving the underwrite versus a pure seasonal resort. Allica Bank, HTB, OakNorth and Cynergy Bank lead trading-business hotel finance; Cambridge and Counties prices keenly on the smaller BCP hospitality SME freeholds. Pricing for a stabilised West Cliff heritage hotel refinance with three years of clean accounts and a coherent BIC-cycle occupancy story: 7.5 to 8.5 percent pa at 65 to 70 percent LTV on a 20-year term. Listed-building work in the conservation area triggers a specialist heritage valuation premium.

Talbot Village and Talbot Heath are the dominant student-let HMO catchment for Bournemouth, anchored by Bournemouth University (c. 19,000 students) and Arts University Bournemouth (c. 3,500 students), both physically across the Bournemouth and Poole boundary in BH9 and BH10. The combined c. 22,500-student demand pool plus the dense terraced and 1930s semi-detached stock north of the campus drives an active C3 to C4 and C4 to sui generis 7-bed-plus change-of-use planning pipeline. Stabilised HMO portfolios with existing C4 or sui generis consents are financeable cleanly at 65 to 75 percent LTV. Paragon, Together and Foundation Home Loans lead the lender pool; pricing for a stabilised portfolio: 7.0 to 8.0 percent pa at 70 to 75 percent LTV. Speculative C3-to-C4 conversion finance is much harder to place without an existing planning consent in hand.

The Lansdowne business district (BH1) is the financial services cluster anchored by JPMorgan Chase's Littledown campus, one of the largest financial-services back-office footprints outside London at c. 4,000+ staff across BCP. JPMorgan itself runs corporate-back-office, not a commercial mortgage desk, but the labour shed it creates underwrites a deep professional-services tenant pool that lenders read favourably across Lansdowne, Old Christchurch Road, Richmond Hill and Madeira Road. HTB, YBS Commercial, Shawbrook and Cynergy Bank price competitively on stabilised multi-let Lansdowne office investment with mixed professional-services covenants. Pricing for a stabilised Lansdowne professional-services office investment with five-year WAULT on a blended professional-services tenant base: 6.5 to 7.8 percent pa at 65 to 70 percent LTV on a 25-year amortisation with a 5-year fix.

Yes, Cumberland Building Society runs the most active BCP holiday-let lending book in the country and we use it routinely on stabilised holiday-let portfolios across BH1, BH2, BH4, BH5 and BH6, plus the wider Christchurch and Poole sides of the BCP unitary. Hodge sits alongside Cumberland as a specialist holiday-let desk with meaningful BCP appetite, particularly on cases that include a multi-asset SPV pack and three-year occupancy and ADR evidence. Both lenders treat holiday-let as a distinct segment rather than a buy-to-let edge case, which means cleaner underwriting on stabilised portfolios than a generalist desk will offer. Paragon, Together and Foundation Home Loans round out the broader holiday-let-and-investment lender pool. Pricing for a stabilised three-asset BCP holiday-let portfolio with three years of occupancy data and a coherent seasonality story: 6.5 to 7.8 percent pa at 65 to 70 percent LTV on a 25-year structure with a 5-year fix.

The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) unitary council was formed in 2019 by combining the three former local authorities. For commercial mortgage lending this matters in three ways. First, planning is a single authority, BCP Council, with one portal at publicaccess.bcpcouncil.gov.uk covering all three former boroughs, which simplifies consent verification on bridge-to-let and conversion files. Second, lenders price BCP as a single travel-to-work area rather than three separate markets, so a Christchurch SME freehold or a Poole holiday-let portfolio sits inside the same regional lender pool as a Bournemouth case and quotes from the same desks. Third, the combined BCP economy of c. 400K population with c. 3,900+ annual residential transactions across the three former boroughs provides a deeper comparable evidence base for RICS valuers, which materially helps the underwrite on specialist or unusual assets.