Bolton Business Finance is an independent commercial finance broker working with businesses and property investors across Salford. We arrange buy to let and property investment finance, commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance, business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and merchant cash advances. Salford Quays is about thirteen miles from our office and Walkden and Worsley closer still.
We arrange buy to let and commercial mortgages in Salford for limited company landlords, portfolio investors and businesses buying their own premises. We do not lend ourselves. We approach the lenders most likely to say yes to your particular case, and in a city with this much apartment stock in it, knowing which lenders will actually take a given block matters more than the headline rate does.
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.
On this page
- We will come to you in Salford
- Buy to let and property investment in Salford
- Apartments, new build and what lenders actually check
- Commercial mortgage broker Salford
- Bridging and development finance
- Business loans and asset finance
- What we do not do
- Salford businesses we work with
- Meeting us in Salford
- Salford commercial finance FAQs
- Apply for commercial finance in Salford
The short version
- A commercial finance broker arranges funding for businesses from lenders across the market, rather than lending money itself.
- Buy to let finance arranged through a limited company is business lending. Buy to let on a property you or a family member will live in is regulated and we cannot arrange it.
- Apartment lending is more restrictive than house lending: lenders cap how many units they will fund in one block, and many apply limits on height, lease length and building safety documentation.
- UK lenders typically advance up to 70% of value on commercial property and up to 75% on semi-commercial, over terms of 3 to 25 years.
- Salford is the one part of Greater Manchester and Lancashire we cover where average house prices fell over the year to June 2026, which changes the investment case in both directions.
We Will Come To You In Salford
Salford is a long city and the distance depends entirely on which end of it you are at. Walkden and Worsley are only six or seven miles from Westgate House and take a quarter of an hour. Swinton and Eccles are a little further. Salford Quays and MediaCityUK are about thirteen miles, usually twenty five to thirty minutes down the A666 and round the M60, longer if the Trafford Centre traffic is against you.
On apartment investment in particular there is a limit to what can be settled remotely. Which block it is, how many storeys, what the lease says, what the service charge actually runs at, and whether the building safety paperwork is in order all bear directly on whether a lender will touch it. Those are questions worth answering before an offer goes in rather than six weeks into an application.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Areas covered | Salford Quays and MediaCityUK, Chapel Street and Greengate, Ordsall, Eccles, Swinton, Pendlebury, Walkden, Worsley, Irlam, Cadishead, Broughton and Kersal |
| Distance from our office | Six or seven miles to Walkden and Worsley, about thirteen to the Quays. Fifteen to thirty minutes depending on which end |
| Products arranged | Buy to let and property investment finance, commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance, business loans, asset finance, invoice finance, merchant cash advances |
| Lender panel | Over 135 lenders, from high street banks to specialist and non-bank funders |
| Broker fee | None on most facilities, we are paid a disclosed commission by the lender. Property secured deals carry £495 upfront and 1% on completion |
| First meeting | Free, at your premises, your accountant’s office or ours |
| Regulatory status | Not FCA authorised. Non-regulated business finance only. No residential mortgages and no consumer buy to let |
Buy To Let and Property Investment in Salford
Salford is doing something none of the other places we cover is doing, and any investment case here has to start with it. According to ONS and HM Land Registry data, the average house price in Salford was £232,000 in June 2026, down 2.4% on the year from £238,000. Across the North West as a whole, prices rose 4.7% over the same period. Average private rent was £1,167 a month in July 2026, up 3.6% from £1,127, which is also below the regional rise of 5.7%.
Run those together and the gross yield has improved, from roughly 5.7% to roughly 6.0%. That looks like the best yield movement of any area we cover, and in arithmetic terms it is. But it is worth being clear about why it happened, because the reason matters more than the number.
A rising yield is not always good news
Yields rise for two quite different reasons. They rise when rents grow faster than prices, which is a strengthening income market. They also rise when prices fall while rents stand still, which is a weakening capital market. Salford is the second kind. Rents here grew more slowly than the region, and the yield improved chiefly because the denominator went down. If you are buying for income and intend to hold for a long time, a softer entry price is genuinely useful. If your model depends on capital growth over three to five years, or on refinancing at a higher valuation to release deposit for the next purchase, the last twelve months have worked against you rather than for you. Model both, and be honest with yourself about which one you were relying on.
| Property type | Average price, June 2026 | Average rent, July 2026 | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flats and maisonettes | £162,000 | £1,018 | 7.5% |
| Terraced | £225,000 | £1,167 | 6.2% |
| Semi-detached | £288,000 | £1,311 | 5.5% |
| Detached | £447,000 | £1,529 | 4.1% |
Flats show 7.5% gross, the strongest figure in the table, and in Salford that is not the usual small-stock artefact it is elsewhere. Rents on apartments here are genuinely high by North West standards, £1,018 a month on average against a regional all-property average of £965, because the Quays and city fringe compete with central Manchester for tenants. The caution is on the other side of the equation: service charges and ground rent sit outside these figures entirely and can be substantial on a managed block, so gross and net diverge more sharply on a Salford apartment than on a terraced house.
Business purpose only
We arrange buy to let and property investment finance on a business basis only, through limited companies, partnerships and portfolio landlords. We are not FCA authorised and we do not arrange consumer buy to let, regulated buy to let or any residential mortgage. If the property is or will be lived in by you or a close family member, that is regulated business and you need an FCA authorised mortgage adviser instead.
Apartments, New Build and What Lenders Actually Check
More of Salford’s investment stock is apartments than anywhere else we cover, concentrated around Salford Quays, MediaCityUK, Chapel Street and Greengate. Apartment lending is a different discipline from lending on houses, and the things that sink an application are rarely the things a first-time apartment buyer is worrying about.
- Lenders cap their exposure to any one block. Most will only fund a limited proportion of the units in a single development, commonly somewhere between a tenth and a quarter. In a large Salford block that ceiling can already be reached, which means a perfectly good applicant gets declined for a reason that has nothing to do with them. This is the single most common surprise on apartment cases here, and it is checkable in advance.
- Height and construction type matter. A number of lenders apply storey limits, and many apply additional requirements on taller blocks. Building safety documentation for the block is something the lender will want to see rather than take on trust, and obtaining it from a managing agent can take longer than the rest of the application.
- Lease length and terms get read properly. Short leases narrow the lender pool quickly, and onerous ground rent provisions can make a flat difficult to fund at all. Get the lease reviewed early rather than assuming it is standard because the block is modern.
- New build valuations can come in under the purchase price. Valuers strip out incentives and the premium attached to being first owner. If you are buying new build, work out what happens to your deposit if the valuation lands five or ten per cent below the price, because that gap is yours to fund.
- Off-plan has a timing problem. Mortgage offers have a shelf life, and completion dates on development slip. If the offer expires before the block is finished the case has to be re-underwritten against whatever criteria and valuation apply at that point, not the ones you started with.
What to send us first on an apartment case
The block name and address, the floor and storey count, the lease length and ground rent, the annual service charge, and whether you are buying completed or off-plan. Those six things determine most of the lender shortlist. Sending them at the outset routinely saves a fortnight, and occasionally saves an abortive valuation fee on a block nobody was going to lend on.
Commercial Mortgage Broker Salford
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.
Salford’s commercial market is unusually varied for a single city. There is modern office and media space around MediaCityUK and the Quays. There is a long-established industrial and distribution belt running along the Ship Canal and out toward Irlam and Trafford Park’s northern edge. There is ordinary high street retail and service premises through Eccles, Swinton and Walkden. And there is the mixed use ground floor stock underneath the apartment blocks on Chapel Street, which is its own category and behaves differently from all three.
What decides your terms
- Property type. Standard industrial, warehousing and offices attract the widest choice. Pubs, hotels, care homes and petrol stations attract specialists only.
- Whether you occupy it or let it. Owner occupied is assessed on your trading accounts. Investment is assessed on the rent and the strength of the tenant.
- Mixed use configuration. A commercial unit forming part of a larger residential block raises questions about the lease structure, the service charge apportionment and who controls the building. Those need answering before a lender will commit.
- Lease length. A short unexpired lease on an investment property narrows the field quickly.
- Trading history. Two years of filed accounts opens most doors. Less than that pushes you toward specialists.
- Condition and EPC. Commercial property let in England generally needs an EPC of E or better.
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.
Bridging and Development Finance in Salford
Bridging is short term property lending, usually three to eighteen months, priced monthly and repaid from a sale or a refinance. In Salford it comes up on auction purchases, on older stock in Ordsall, Broughton and Pendlebury bought below mortgageable condition, and on commercial to residential conversion.
- 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
- Refurbishing before refinancing onto a term buy to let facility
- Breaking a chain when a sale slips
- Raising working capital quickly against property already owned
The number that catches people out
Bridging lenders size the loan against the 180 day value, not the open market value. That is what the property would fetch in a forced six month sale, and it is routinely 10% to 20% below the figure in the valuation you paid for. In a market where values have been falling rather than rising, that discount tends to be applied more firmly rather than less, so build the cautious figure into your numbers from the start.
Development finance funds building work rather than a purchase, released in stages against a schedule of works with a valuer signing off each drawdown. Salford has a substantial development pipeline, and the question lenders are asking harder than they were two years ago is what the units are actually worth on completion rather than what the appraisal says they will be. Where local values have softened, a scheme appraised on optimistic end values will struggle, and it is better to find that out at the appraisal stage than at practical completion.
- Land or acquisition drawdown. Usually up to 60% to 70% of the purchase price, released on completion.
- Staged build drawdowns. Released in arrears against work completed and signed off by the lender’s monitoring surveyor.
- Practical completion. Final drawdown, and the point at which the exit route has to be real rather than intended.
- Exit. Sale of the units, or refinance onto a commercial mortgage or buy to let facility.
Business Loans and Asset Finance in Salford
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. Salford’s business base spans an unusually wide range, from creative and media businesses around MediaCityUK to long-established industrial firms along the Ship Canal, but the great majority sit at that small end.
What we arrange most often for Salford businesses:
- Unsecured business loans, typically £10,000 to £500,000, decisions in days rather than weeks
- Invoice finance, releasing cash tied up in unpaid invoices, which suits agencies, production companies and contractors working on project terms
- Asset finance, for vehicles, plant, production and studio equipment, with nil deposit options and no broker fee
- Secured business loans, larger sums against property, slower but cheaper
- Merchant cash advances, repaid as a percentage of card takings, which suits retail and hospitality
If you have already been declined
A decline tells you about that lender’s criteria rather than about whether your business can be funded. Lenders refuse cases for reasons that have nothing to do with the strength of the business: sales below their minimum, a director who does not own a home, a payment provider their systems cannot read, an application already sitting with another introducer. We have placed cases that had been turned down repeatedly, with nothing about the business having changed. What changed was which lender was looking at it.
What We Do Not Do
We do not arrange residential mortgages, and we do not arrange consumer buy to let. A number of people reach this page looking for a mortgage broker in Salford for a home to live in, or for a first buy to let in their own name. We cannot help with either.
Business buy to let, held through a limited company or as part of a genuine property investment business, is not regulated and we can arrange it. Consumer buy to let, broadly where you did not set out to be a landlord, or where the property has been or will be lived in by you or a close family member, is regulated and we cannot.
Bolton Business Finance Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We arrange non-regulated commercial and business finance only. That means we cannot advise on or arrange: residential mortgages, first time buyer mortgages, remortgages of your own home, consumer buy to let, equity release, or any consumer credit.
If you need any of those, use the FCA’s Financial Services Register to find an authorised adviser. If you are a business owner, a landlord holding property through a company, or a property investor funding on a commercial basis, then you are in the right place.
Salford Businesses We Work With
Salford’s enquiry mix is wider than most, because the city contains a modern media and office economy and a traditional industrial one within a few miles of each other.
- Property investors and portfolio landlords, buying apartments around the Quays and Chapel Street and terraced stock through Eccles, Swinton and Pendlebury. Limited company buy to let, portfolio refinancing and bridging.
- Creative, media and professional businesses, around MediaCityUK and the Quays. Invoice finance against project work and equipment finance.
- Industrial and logistics firms, along the Ship Canal corridor and out toward Irlam. Owner occupier commercial mortgages and asset finance.
- Construction and trades, active on the development pipeline, where the problem is nearly always the gap between doing the work and being paid for it.
- Retail and hospitality, in Eccles, Swinton, Walkden and at the Quays. Merchant cash advances and short term working capital.
Meeting Us in Salford
We do not have an office in Salford and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We are based at Westgate House in Bolton, and the Walkden and Worsley end of Salford is one of the closest places we travel to at six or seven miles. The Quays is further but still a straightforward run.
Where we will meet you
- At the property, which on an apartment purchase is worth doing, because the block and its management tell you things the particulars do not.
- At your premises or office, anywhere from Walkden and Worsley through to Eccles, Ordsall and the Quays.
- At your accountant’s office, which often saves a meeting later when the figures come up.
- At ours in Bolton, if you would rather come to us. Free parking.
Salford Commercial Finance FAQs
Do you actually visit clients in Salford?
Yes. Walkden and Worsley are only six or seven miles from our Bolton office and Salford Quays is about thirteen, so anywhere in the city is between fifteen and thirty minutes away. We cover the Quays and MediaCityUK, Chapel Street, Ordsall, Eccles, Swinton, Pendlebury, Irlam and Cadishead. We meet clients at their premises, at the property, or at their accountant’s office. There is no charge for a first meeting and no obligation to proceed. If you would rather come to us, we are at Westgate House, Westgate Avenue, Bolton, BL1 4RF.
Why has my lender declined an apartment in a Salford block?
The most common reason has nothing to do with you. Most lenders limit how many units they will fund within a single development, often somewhere between a tenth and a quarter of the block, and in a large Salford building that ceiling may already have been reached. Other frequent causes are storey limits on taller buildings, outstanding building safety documentation the managing agent has not supplied, a short lease, or onerous ground rent terms. All of those are checkable before you apply. Send us the block name, the floor, the lease length, the ground rent and the service charge and we can usually tell you quickly which lenders are realistically available.
How long does a commercial mortgage take?
Typically 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 tell you that rather than start an application that cannot land in time.
How much can I borrow?
On commercial property, typically up to 70% of value, or up to 75% on semi-commercial. On limited company buy to let it is driven by the rental income against the stressed payment rather than by your own income. On unsecured business loans, commonly £10,000 to £500,000 depending on turnover and trading history. On asset finance it is driven by the asset itself, with nil deposit options available.
Can you help if I have already been declined?
Often, yes. A decline reflects one lender’s criteria, not a verdict on your business. Lenders turn cases down for reasons that have nothing to do with whether the business is sound, and with more than 135 lenders on our panel the question is usually which one to approach rather than whether anyone will look at it. Tell us who has already seen the case, because approaching the same lender twice through a different route does not help you.
Do you charge a broker fee?
Not on most facilities. On business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and merchant cash advances we are paid a commission by the lender, which is disclosed to you. Property secured deals carry a £495 upfront fee and 1% on completion. You will know the full cost before anything is submitted.
Apply For Commercial Finance in Salford
Tell us what you need funding for
Send us the outline and we will tell you honestly whether it is fundable, roughly what it should cost, and how long it will take. No charge for the conversation and no obligation to proceed. Call 0161 546 9128 or use the form below.
About the author
Marcus Wright is the owner and founder of Bolton Business Finance Ltd. He has worked in financial services since 2008, beginning at Santander, and has been a commercial finance broker since March 2019. He founded the firm in 2020 and is a member of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers.
He arranges commercial mortgages, bridging finance, development finance, business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and merchant cash advances for UK businesses, working with a panel of more than 135 lenders. He can be reached on 0161 546 9128.
Marcus is also the author of UK Commercial Finance (2026), a commercial finance book for UK business owners and property investors.
Bolton Business Finance Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 12495909. Registered office: Westgate House, Westgate Avenue, Bolton, BL1 4RF.
Bolton Business Finance Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We arrange non-regulated commercial and business finance only, and do not advise on or arrange residential mortgages, consumer buy to let, equity release or consumer credit. All finance is subject to status, lender criteria and credit assessment. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any other debt secured on it.