Recently, commercial mortgages have become more flexible and are now available to a wider spectrum of businesses. As well as traditional high street banks, specialist lenders will now consider those with previous credit difficulties or insufficient accounts.

If you are purchasing a commercial property for your own use a lender will usually require you to provide audited accounts for your business as well as a business plan. There are, however, schemes available where these are not required, which may be especially useful if your company is relatively new.

If you are looking to purchase a retail property for investment purposes, you can expect to pay Bank Base Rate + 1.5% to 3%, at a loan to property value up to maximum of between 75% and 80%. The maximum term of a retail commercial investment mortgage will usually be 25 years and interest only mortgages are not generally available.

Not everyone has a perfect credit history, but this should not prevent you purchasing commercial property.  In many cases adverse credit history will not affect the mortgage decision in commercial property investment because financing is in most cases based around the tenant and the rental/tenancy agreement with them and, in the case of purchasing for yourself, there are now schemes available that take all circumstances into account.