Gym and fitness business funding: kit, fit-outs and the months between joins
New equipment, a refurbished space and a marketing campaign are the usual reasons gyms borrow, and each is funded differently, as set out below. Whether to borrow, and which product to use, is your decision.
Enquiring does not affect your credit score. If you apply to a lender, it runs its own credit search, which may be recorded on your file.
The gym equipment problem
A single set of commercial treadmills can cost more than a gym holds in cash, which is why kit is often bought on finance and repaid over its working life. Finance spreads the cost and adds interest, so the total paid is higher than buying outright.
Equipment
Commercial cardio, free weights, functional rigs and spin bikes all have a resale market, so an asset finance lender can hold them as security until the last payment.
A new class space
A yoga studio, spin room or group exercise space is a fit-out. The works cannot be lifted out and sold, so lenders size it on the bank statements, and whether it covers its cost depends on bookings and pricing.
Marketing
Targeted ads, a free trial offer or referral incentives cannot be held as security, so lenders treat the spend as working capital. Results vary, and the finance is repaid whatever the campaign brings in.
Refurbishment
New flooring, better lighting and clean changing rooms are fixed works, lent against the bank statements rather than against the kit.
How lenders read a gym
A gym is read the way any leisure business is read: how much revenue arrives, how reliably it arrives, and how long it has been arriving. The kit can be financed as an asset, and a gym buying its own building is a leisure premises case for a commercial mortgage lender.
How members pay matters to a lender. Many gyms collect most of their membership by direct debit, and term and asset finance lenders read that income from the bank statements.
Time trading is the gate that catches new sites. Some lenders will look at a business under a year old, and an enquiry through us needs at least three months of trading. A second site backed by a first site's statements is a much easier conversation than a first site backed by a spreadsheet.
Pricing on an unsecured loan is set case by case. A lender’s published floor is where its pricing starts, not where a gym lands.
Kit on finance, or kit bought outright
Cardio kit and rigs are financeable assets, which matters more than it sounds. An asset finance lender is pricing against a rack of spin bikes it could take back and sell, so the security sits in the room rather than on your balance sheet.
Buying outright avoids finance cost and empties the account in one afternoon. Spreading the same purchase keeps the cash for the things no lender will fund, such as the marketing that fills the classes the kit is for. The arithmetic that decides it is not the rate; it is whether the retained cash earns more than the finance costs over the same months. We can show both totals from the lender’s own figures, and the choice stays with you.
The three shapes a gym borrows in
Facts checked 9 September 2026
ukactive and gov.uk figures read on the day shown. What lenders look for is described in general terms and is not an offer.
Shape one: the room
Rubber flooring, mirrors, a partition wall for a studio, ventilation for a spin room and a changing-room refit: none of it can be lifted out and sold, so a fit-out is lent against the bank statements rather than against the works. An unsecured loan is the usual route, priced on the gym’s own statements. Lockers or a reception desk on one supplier invoice can sometimes go to an asset lender that covers shop and office fit-out.
Shape two: the kit
Treadmills, a functional rig, a rack of spin bikes, cable stations and a dumbbell run all have a resale market, which is why the funder keeps title until the last instalment and why this shape tolerates the thinnest file of the three. Some asset lenders will defer the VAT rather than fund it on day one or look at older machinery, which is where a refurbished cardio line from a dealer sits.
Shape three: the months between joins
January brings the sign-ups and the summer brings the cancellations. An unsecured facility is sized on bank statements, so a gym’s direct debit income shows in the assessment. Lenders publish terms from a few months to several years, and a longer term on a short gap means paying interest for longer.
The fitness trade in numbers, and what the rates bill did in April 2026
ukactive's UK Health and Fitness Market Report 2026, published on 9 April 2026 with Sport England and 4GLOBAL and analysed by Grant Thornton UK, counts 12.2 million members aged 16 and over, 18% of that population, up from 14.6% in 2022, 16.0% in 2023 and 16.9% in 2024. It puts clubs at 5,842, 4.2% more than in 2024, total income at £6.5bn against £5.7bn a year earlier, and 2025 visits at 679 million, a 10% rise; studio-only and pool-only sites are excluded. The ONS bulletin on UK businesses (24 September 2025, IDBR at 14 March 2025) has no separate line for fitness facilities, so we cannot put a number on gym businesses as opposed to gym sites, and we would rather say so than borrow one.
Gyms, sports grounds and sports clubs are named on the gov.uk list of leisure premises that qualify for the retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers from 1 April 2026: 38.2p in the pound for a rateable value under £51,000 and 43p from £51,000 to £499,999, each 5p under the national equivalent, replacing the 40% relief of 2025/26 (guidance updated 30 March 2026, Budget 2025 factsheet updated 30 January 2026, both read 9 September 2026). Whether a unit qualifies is the billing authority's decision.
Sources
- ukactive: UK Health and Fitness Market Report 2026 (9 April 2026)
- ONS: UK business, activity, size and location 2025
- Gov.uk: RHL business rates multipliers guidance
- Gov.uk: Budget 2025 RHL factsheet
Sector figures read on 9 September 2026. Nothing on this page is an offer from any lender.
What a lender asks for
A gym is read on its memberships, its lease and its kit, and a lender asks for the evidence of each before it looks at the accounts.
- ✓The membership figures: how many members, the monthly fee, the joiners and leavers each month, and the direct debit collection report, which is the income a lender can verify.
- ✓The lease: its remaining term, the rent, the break clauses and the landlord’s consent to any fit-out, because the kit and the fit-out are funded over a period the lease has to outlast.
- ✓For equipment: the supplier’s quote in the company’s name, naming each machine, new or refurbished, with the delivery and installation cost, since cardio and resistance kit is funded on hire purchase or lease and read as a soft asset.
- ✓Recent business bank statements or an Open Banking connection, read for the direct debit receipts landing on the collection dates and the rent leaving on time.
- ✓The last filed accounts and current management figures; for a new site, the operator’s record at any existing site.
Which stages are in your hands
A gym’s facility follows the membership figures and the kit order, and the stages below are the operator’s to control.
The membership report
A report from the membership software showing the active count, the churn and the collected direct debits for the last several months is the document a lender reads first. Running it before the enquiry turns a conversation into a case.
The kit specification
The lender funds what the quote names. A quote that lists each machine with its price lets the lender split the hard and soft assets and price each; a single line for the whole fit-out does not.
The landlord’s consent
Fitting out a unit needs the landlord’s written consent under most leases, and a lender funding the works asks to see it.
The opening date
Kit is paid for on delivery and installation, so the supplier’s installation date is the date the agreement starts. Members joining before the doors open are evidence a lender can count.
What can go wrong
Gym finance fails on the kit’s resale value, the lease and the churn.
- Kit funded for longer than it lasts. Cardio machines in a busy gym wear out before a long agreement ends, and the business pays for kit it has replaced. The agreement term is worth matching to the kit’s life, which is the operator’s decision.
- A lease shorter than the finance. A fit-out and kit funded over five years on a three-year lease depends on a renewal the landlord has not yet granted.
- Membership counted at its January peak. A lender reads the collected direct debits across the year, and a facility sized on the New Year count is tested by the September figure.
- Soft assets sent to a hard-asset lender. Flooring, mirrors, changing rooms and software have no resale value. A lender that publishes hard assets only declines them late; one that funds fit-out prices for it.
Gym and fitness funding questions
Can a new gym get equipment finance?▼
Asset lenders set their own minimum trading periods, and an enquiry through us needs a company that has traded for at least three months. The funder lends against the treadmills rather than a forecast, some asset lenders will defer the VAT, and a deposit and a director's guarantee are normal on a first agreement.
Can a gym in its first year get a business loan?▼
From fewer lenders than a gym with a longer record, because a business under 12 months old has fewer statements to show, and an enquiry through us needs at least three months of trading. Kit finance and term loans carry separate criteria, and UK limited companies and LLPs can enquire.
How does franchise gym finance work?▼
The franchisor's model gives a lender a trading pattern to test the plan against, but the borrower is the franchisee's own company, judged on its own accounts and directors. A franchise badge opens no separate list of lenders; the same trading-age and equipment questions apply.
Can a gym with bad credit get funding?▼
It depends on the age of the marks and the shape of the borrowing. Some lenders will consider adverse credit more than two years old, and on kit the equipment itself carries much of the risk; criteria vary from lender to lender. Enquiring does not affect your credit score. If you apply to a lender, it runs its own credit search, which may be recorded on your file.
Is CapExpand FCA regulated?▼
CapExpand Ltd (FRN 1060885) is a credit broker and an Appointed Representative of White Rose Finance Group Limited (FRN 630772), which is directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are a broker, not a lender. We work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes. Both firms appear on the Financial Services Register at register.fca.org.uk. We do not give advice.
Start a gym funding enquiry
3-minute form, and enquiring does not affect your credit score. If you apply to a lender, it runs its own credit search, which may be recorded on your file. Every application is read by a named case handler.
The panel behind this page
The term loans and asset finance on this page go through our panel: We have access to a range of UK commercial finance lenders through our principal, White Rose Finance Group Limited. We check criteria first and approach only the lenders whose requirements you fit.