Commercial Finance Broker Oldham

Bolton Business Finance is an independent commercial finance broker working with businesses and property investors across Oldham. We arrange commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance, business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and merchant cash advances. Our office is fifteen miles away, about thirty minutes via the M60 and A627(M).

We are the commercial mortgage broker Oldham businesses can actually sit down with. We do not lend ourselves. We approach the lenders most likely to say yes to your particular case, and we will come to your premises rather than handle the whole thing by email.

Written by Marcus Wright, owner and founder of Bolton Business Finance Ltd, in financial services since 2008 and a commercial finance broker since 2019. Last reviewed September 2026.

We Will Come To You In Oldham

Oldham is about fifteen miles from Westgate House. The usual run is the M61 down to the M60, round to junction 22 and up the A627(M), which puts us in Oldham town centre in half an hour on a normal morning. For Saddleworth it is closer to forty minutes, and for Failsworth and Hollinwood it is a little quicker off the M60.

That matters more in Oldham than in most places, because so much of the commercial stock here needs looking at rather than reading about. A converted mill with three tenants, a yard behind a trade counter, a unit on a site with access issues. None of that comes across in a valuation summary, and lenders make very different decisions once someone has actually walked the building.

Commercial Mortgage Broker Oldham

A commercial mortgage is a loan secured against property used for business purposes. That covers premises your own business trades from, and property you buy to let to a commercial tenant. Terms usually run 3 to 25 years, occasionally up to 30. Lenders typically advance up to 70% of value on commercial property and up to 75% on semi-commercial, meaning a shop or office with a flat above it.

Oldham is not one property market and treating it as one is how applications go wrong. Central Oldham, Hollinwood and Failsworth are dense terraced and industrial stock at the affordable end of Greater Manchester. Saddleworth, eight miles east over the moor edge, is among the most expensive property in the borough. Two commercial buildings of the same size in those two places can be worth three or four times different amounts, attract completely different lenders, and need completely different arguments made for them.

The distinction that catches people out is investment against trading. If you are buying premises to run your own business from, the lender underwrites your business. If you are buying to let it out, the lender underwrites the rental income and the covenant behind it. Same building, two entirely different applications, and often two entirely different lists of lenders.

Be realistic on timing. In our experience a commercial mortgage takes 3 to 6 months from first enquiry to completion, and longer on a complicated case. Valuation and legal work are the two stages that overrun most often. If your deadline is weeks rather than months, bridging is usually the honest answer and we will say so.

Our main commercial mortgage broker page sets out lender appetite and typical loan to value by property type, from industrial and offices through to pubs, care homes, petrol stations and places of worship.

Mills, Multi-Let Industrial and the EPC Problem

Oldham has more surviving cotton mill floorspace than almost anywhere in England, and a large share of it is still in commercial use. Subdivided into units, let to eight or twelve small businesses, often on licences or short leases rather than proper commercial terms. If you own one or are buying one, you have probably already discovered that mainstream lenders find them difficult.

There are three reasons, and they are worth understanding before you apply anywhere.

• Tenant covenant. Twelve small tenants on rolling licences looks like risk to an underwriter, even where the income is more stable than a single tenant would be. The arithmetic favours you, the credit policy often does not.
• EPC ratings. Commercial property let in England generally needs an EPC of E or better, and the direction of travel is tighter still. Victorian mill construction rates badly almost by definition. A lender will ask what happens if the rating blocks you from re-letting, and you need an answer.
• Valuation spread. The gap between the open market value and the figure a lender will actually work to is wider on this stock than on anything else. Two valuers can land a long way apart on the same mill.

Business Loans and Asset Finance in Oldham

Across the UK, 99.18% of businesses employ fewer than 50 people and around three quarters employ nobody beyond the owners, according to the government’s Business Population Estimates for 2025. Oldham’s business base sits firmly at that end. That matters because most high street lending policy is built around businesses considerably larger, which is why small firms with perfectly sound trading get turned away.

What we arrange most often for Oldham businesses:

• Unsecured business loans, typically £10,000 to £500,000, decisions in days rather than weeks
• Secured business loans, larger sums against property, slower but cheaper
• Asset finance, for vehicles, plant and machinery, with nil deposit options and no broker fee
• Invoice finance, releasing cash tied up in unpaid invoices, which suits engineering, haulage and contracting
• Merchant cash advances, repaid as a percentage of card takings, which suits retail and hospitality

Bridging Finance in Oldham

Bridging is short term property lending, usually three to eighteen months, priced monthly and repaid from a sale or a refinance. In Oldham it comes up most often on stock that no term lender will touch in its current state, which given the age of the building stock here is a great deal of it.

• Buying at auction, where completion is fixed at twenty eight days
• Buying a property no mainstream lender will touch, typically no kitchen, no bathroom or serious damp
• Buying a mill or industrial building that needs work before it can be let or refinanced
• Breaking a chain when a sale slips
• Raising working capital quickly against property already owned

Buy To Let and Property Investment in Oldham

Oldham is doing something interesting on the numbers, and it is close to the opposite of what neighbouring Bury is doing. According to ONS and HM Land Registry data published in August 2026, the average house price in Oldham was £215,000 in June 2026, up 5.1% on the year. Average private rent was £931 a month in July 2026.

The figure worth pausing on is the rent growth. Oldham rents rose 11.0% over the year to July 2026. Across the North West they rose 5.7%. Oldham rents grew at close to double the regional rate, from a lower base, while prices also outpaced the region.

On the headline averages that puts gross yield around 5.2%, roughly in line with the North West, but moving in the right direction rather than compressing. Oldham property also remains cheaper than the regional average of £220,000, which means a given deposit buys more units here than in most of Greater Manchester. That combination is why a large share of the investor cases we see in the borough are portfolio purchases rather than single properties.

What lenders will do about it is a separate question. Rent rising 11% in a year is recent, and a lender stressing affordability will test the rent against the payment at a rate well above what you are actually paying. Fast recent growth does not soften that test. If anything it makes valuers more cautious, because they are pricing a market that has moved quickly.

Development Finance in Oldham

Development finance funds a build rather than a purchase. It is released in stages against certified progress, with interest rolled up and settled at exit rather than serviced monthly. In Oldham it most often funds small residential schemes, mill and industrial conversions, and infill sites in the older parts of the borough.

1. Day one advance against the site, released on completion of the purchase
2. Build drawdowns, paid in arrears as a monitoring surveyor certifies the work completed
3. Practical completion, final drawdown released and any retention settled
4. Exit, loan and rolled up interest repaid from unit sales or a refinance

Expect around 65% of gross development value and up to 85% of cost. The most common mistake we see is assuming the full facility lands on completion. It does not, and you need working capital to reach each certification point. On smaller schemes it is sometimes cheaper to structure the money a different way entirely, as a charge against other property you already own, which removes the monitoring surveyor, the drawdown fees and the ongoing inspection costs.

What We Do Not Do

A fair number of people reach this page looking for a residential mortgage broker in Oldham. We are not one, and we would rather say so plainly than waste your time.

What we do arrange is lending to businesses. Limited companies, partnerships, sole traders trading commercially and property investors buying on a business basis. If you are buying premises, funding stock, replacing a van, smoothing cash flow or building something out, that is our side of the line.

Oldham Businesses We Work With

Oldham’s economy divides along geography more sharply than most boroughs, and each part of it tends to need a different product.

• Chadderton and Broadway manufacturing and distribution. The employment spine of the borough, sitting on the M60. Asset finance for plant and vehicles, invoice finance where they supply on credit terms, and commercial mortgages where they own the unit.
• Hollinwood and Failsworth trade and logistics. Trade counters, builders merchants, small hauliers and the businesses that serve the M60 corridor. Usually asset finance and working capital.
• Mill landlords and multi-let industrial owners. Spread across the older parts of the borough. Commercial mortgages and bridging, almost always with a specialist lender rather than a bank.
• Saddleworth independents. Restaurants, pubs, delis, shops and holiday lets across Uppermill, Delph, Dobcross and Greenfield. Seasonal trading that lenders find hard to underwrite from a single set of accounts, so often merchant cash advance or a short term facility.
• Construction and trades across Royton, Shaw and Lees. Groundworks, electrical, joinery and building contractors. Usually invoice finance or asset finance, because the money is tied up in applications and retentions.

Meeting Us in Oldham

We are at Westgate House on Westgate Avenue in Bolton, BL1 4RF, with parking on site. From Oldham the quickest route is the A627(M) down to the M60 and round to the M61, which is about half an hour outside peak times. If you are coming from Saddleworth allow longer, and if you would rather not make the trip at all we will come to you.

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