Owner-Occupier Commercial Mortgage Brighton
Long-term debt funding the purchase of the property your business trades from. Up to 75% loan-to-value. EBITDA cover at 1.3 to 1.5x. Interest rates 6.0 to 7.5% pa for strong covenants. 5 to 25 year repayment terms. Active across Hove professional services on Norton Road and Western Road, Kemptown dental and F&B, and Preston Park Avenue creative SMEs.
LTV
Up to 75%
Rate
From 6.5% pa
Term
5 to 25 years
Facility
£150K to £5M
What is an owner-occupier mortgage and how does it differ from investment?
An owner-occupier commercial mortgage is long-term secured debt funding the purchase of the property your business trades from: your Kemptown dental practice freehold, your Hove accountancy office on Norton Road, your Preston Park Avenue creative studio, your Western Road professional services suite. The lender takes a first charge over the building; you fund a deposit (typically 25 to 30%); the facility is amortised over 15 to 25 years on monthly capital-and-interest repayments. Most owner-occupier deals in Brighton are taken out by a limited company trading entity with a personal guarantee from the directors, though sole traders, partnerships and LLPs are equally accommodated.
The lending test is fundamentally different from an investment mortgage. Where investment lenders test rent against interest cost (ICR), owner-occupier lenders test EBITDA cover: trading profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) measured against the mortgage payment, with a typical comfort threshold of 1.3 to 1.5x. Two years of clean filed accounts is the standard minimum, though specialist desks flex this for established sectors (dental, GP, pharmacy) on 12 to 18 months trading.
It is also different from a residential mortgage, and that distinction matters legally. Owner-occupier commercial lending falls largely outside FCA-regulated mortgage rules, because the borrower is a business buying business premises (not an individual buying a home). The exception: where a sole trader uses the property partly as a residence, the deal can fall into FCA-regulated territory; we flag that at outset. For limited-company borrowers buying B-class commercial stock, the deal is unregulated commercial lending.
In Brighton the typical owner-occupier facility size is £250K to £3M, with the bulk of volume in the £400K to £1.4M bracket reflecting the high per-square-foot values of central and Hove professional services stock. LTVs of 70 to 75% are routine for established businesses, but Brighton valuers can trend conservative on bricks-and-mortar values given the city's tourism-and-creative bias and the limited industrial comparable evidence. Interest rates currently 6.0 to 7.5% pa for strong covenants, stretching to 9.0% on tighter cases. Term length is the most useful affordability lever, extending repayment from 15 to 20 years often clears the EBITDA test where rate alone will not. Stamp duty (SDLT) on commercial purchase applies up to 5% on the slice above £250,000; we factor it into the deposit-and-fees model before submission. Indicative case seed: a Kemptown dental principal buying a freehold practice off St James's Street at £1.2M, EBITDA cover comfortably above 1.5x on NHS UDA plus private fee income, funded at 75% LTV (£900K facility) on a 15-year repayment at around 6.8% pa.
Lender appetite and pricing for owner-occupier deals across Brighton and Hove
1. Initial appraisal
Send the property details, last two years of accounts and current management figures. We assess affordability, sector appetite, likely loan-to-value and which lender desks will engage.
2. Indicative terms in 48 hours
Three to five lender quotes covering interest rate, LTV, term, fees and conditions. You pick the preferred route before any valuation cost lands.
3. Application packaging
Full credit pack: filed accounts, business plan, property details, deposit proof, professional team. A clean pack speeds credit committee approval.
4. RICS Red Book valuation
Critical-path item, typically 2 to 3 weeks. The lender instructs from a panel; valuation comments on bricks-and-mortar value and any specialist sector overlay (dental, GP, pharmacy, creative).
5. Credit approval
Most well-presented owner-occupier cases approve within 1 to 2 weeks of valuation. Clean covenant, clean property, clean numbers, minimum friction.
6. Legal completion and SDLT
Standard freehold conveyancing plus debenture and personal guarantee. Stamp duty land tax payable by the buyer at completion. 3 to 4 weeks typical.
Sectors where Brighton owner-occupier lending is deepest
- Dental practice principals buying their Kemptown or Hove freehold (Royal Sussex County and St James's Street clusters)
- Accountancy, legal, financial services and consultancy firms buying their Norton Road or Western Road office in Hove
- Independent F&B and retail operators on St James's Street and Preston Street acquiring their trading unit
- Pharmacy operators acquiring trading premises across BN1, BN2 and BN3 high streets
- Health and wellness operators (physio, opticians, vets, private clinics) acquiring premises around the Royal Sussex County and Hove Polyclinic flank
- Preston Park Avenue creative SMEs acquiring office and studio freeholds
- Professional services partnerships transitioning from leasehold to freehold on a Hove or central Brighton property
- Tech, digital and design SMEs on the Plus X Innovation Hub fringe acquiring workshop and office freeholds
Why Brighton has unusually defensible owner-occupier capacity
Brighton is one of the UK's most concentrated tourism-and-creative commercial markets, anchored by Brighton & Hove City Council, the University of Brighton, the University of Sussex, American Express in Hove (Amex House), Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust at the Royal Sussex County, Legal & General in Hove, the Wired Sussex creative cluster and the Plus X Innovation Hub at Preston Barracks. The city carries roughly 278,000 residents and a younger working-age skew driven by the combined ~37,000 University of Brighton and University of Sussex students. That demand pattern, combined with structurally firm visitor numbers (around 11 million a year), holds rents and bricks-and-mortar values firmer than the regional UK average and supports unusually defensible owner-occupier purchases on professional services and healthcare stock. Shawbrook, Cynergy Bank, InterBay Commercial and LendInvest all run active South Coast programmes; Allica Bank and HTB (Hampshire Trust Bank) are competitive on £400K to £3M Brighton deals; Cambridge & Counties Bank engages selectively on Brighton freehold cases. The clearing banks Lloyds, NatWest (North Street branch), Barclays and Santander all field commercial desks competing on cleaner owner-occupier cases up to around £5M. Sector clusters worth noting: Hove professional services on Norton Road and Western Road, dental and primary care around the Royal Sussex County and St James's Street strip in Kemptown, independent F&B on Preston Street and the Lanes, and Preston Park Avenue creative SMEs in BN1. Refinancing volume is particularly strong on assets bought 2019 to 2021 where current valuations support a meaningfully better LTV than the original draw.
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Exploring Owner-Occupier Commercial Mortgage for your Brighton scheme?
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