Commercial and industrial finance in Aberdeen

Aberdeen is an industrial city first. The yards, workshops, fabrication sheds and laydown areas from Altens and Tullos round to Dyce and Kintore, and out along the A90 to Westhill and Portlethen, are where most of the money we arrange here goes: buying the unit you rent, refinancing the one you own, and funding the plant inside it. Commercial mortgages from £75k for owner-occupied industrial and office property, asset finance for cranes, CNC machines, vehicles and test equipment, invoice finance for firms trading on 60 and 90 day terms with the operators, and development finance for turning granite terraces and surplus office stock into flats.

The energy supply chain sets the tempo. Order books are strong again, but they are lumpy, and a business that turned over £4m last year on three contracts reads very differently from one that did it on thirty. Lenders who know the North East understand that. Lenders who do not still price the whole city off the 2015 downturn. Knowing which is which is most of the value we add in Aberdeen.

Plant, machinery and asset finance for the supply chain

Asset finance is the cleanest money in Aberdeen because the security is the kit, not the postcode. Fabrication and machining plant, inspection and testing equipment, hydraulic and lifting gear, workshop fit-out, commercial vehicles and the occasional vessel: hire purchase or leasing over 2 to 7 years, deposits that are often just the VAT, and approvals in days on clean cases (indicative). Refinancing machinery you already own outright is often the fastest working capital available to an engineering business, and it does not touch the property. The asset finance page covers the routes; for firms with cash tied up in invoices to the operators, invoice finance sits alongside it.

Refinancing commercial property in Aberdeen

The refinance conversation in Aberdeen is really a conversation about valuations. Office values fell hard after 2015 and have not fully recovered; some industrial estates held up, others did not; and a lender who advanced 70% against a 2014 valuation may now be sitting at 90% or more of today’s figure and wanting out. That is the enquiry we hear most from the city: the existing bank has recategorised the loan, withdrawn appetite or is pricing a renewal to make the borrower leave.

What lenders want now is straightforward. A current valuation from a surveyor who actually works the Aberdeen market, not a desktop figure indexed from the last one. Trading accounts that show the business servicing the debt at a stressed rate with headroom. A clear picture of who occupies the property: an owner-occupier trading well is far easier to place than an investment unit with a short lease to a contractor. On those terms, refinancing at 55 to 65% loan-to-value on industrial and owner-occupied stock is realistic (indicative), and where the numbers do not stretch, a smaller commercial mortgage plus asset refinance on the plant often closes the gap. If the current lender has already given notice, tell us the date. Bridging from £75k buys the time to refinance properly rather than under duress.

Industrial property: buying rather than renting

Owner-occupied industrial units remain one of the most fundable asset classes in Scotland, and Aberdeen rents on the better estates are high enough that buying often costs no more than renting once the loan is at 60 to 70% of value (indicative). Lenders like a trading business paying itself rent. Watch the yard: laydown and hardstanding are valued as land, not buildings, and some lenders discount them heavily. A unit with a large yard and a small shed needs a lender who values the whole site.