LHV Bank review 2026, commercial mortgages and investment loans of £500,000 to £15m

What LHV Bank lends

The commercial loans page lists three products with one size range, £500,000 to £15m. The commercial mortgage is for owner-occupied trading premises in England, Wales or Scotland and goes to 75% LTV. The commercial investment loan is for commercial, industrial, office and retail property, warehouses and light industrial units, mixed portfolios, land, hotels, student housing, housing association stock, large HMOs of 8 or more units and large buy-to-let portfolios, at up to 70%. The specialist buy-to-let loan, the bank's third pillar, takes residential investment property, multi-unit freehold blocks, large portfolios and small HMOs of 6 beds or fewer, again at up to 70%.

Every product runs for a maximum of 5 years on a repayment profile of up to 25 years, so the monthly figure is set as if the loan ran for a quarter of a century and the balance is refinanced or repaid at the end of the 5-year facility. Repayment can be capital and interest or interest only, with further criteria on the interest-only option, and the commercial mortgage allows a capital repayment holiday of up to 12 months on a case-by-case basis. Structures can be variable or fixed, and the security is the property itself supported by other guarantees where the case needs them.

The bank's own history explains the shape of the book. The 2023 releases describe commercial real estate and trading loans from £500,000, with the first loans issued in early 2023 out of the Manchester team acquired from Bank North, whose £17.9m portfolio and 20 staff came across with their broker agreements. By its 2025 results the loan book stood at £0.7bn, having grown 136% in the year, against £1.1bn of deposits and a profit after tax of £5m. A commercial mortgage on the premises a business trades from is the core of it.

Who LHV Bank lends to

The published borrower list is one of the widest on the panel. Sole traders and partnerships are accepted where the case is non-regulated, alongside LLPs, UK registered limited companies, PLCs, SIPP and SSAS pension schemes, charities, trusts and nominee structures domiciled in the UK, and the overseas subsidiary of a UK company where the UK parent gives a full guarantee. That reach into pension schemes and charities sets it apart from lenders whose criteria stop at companies and LLPs.

Security sits in England, Wales or Scotland, and the property lists above draw the sector lines: a hotel, a student block or an 8-unit HMO belongs on the investment loan, a 6-bed HMO or a block of flats on the buy-to-let loan, and a trading firm's own premises on the commercial mortgage. The bank describes its SME customers as entrepreneurs and business owners across Britain, and its Manchester release of 15 September 2023 framed the Northern office as a base for regional business hubs served by loan managers with long experience of local firms.

Property-secured finance arranged through us is for UK limited companies and LLPs. LHV accepts a sole trader or a partnership on its own criteria, so an unincorporated borrower reaches the bank through a broker holding the relevant permissions rather than through us.

How an application runs

The business page sets the process out in four steps. The borrower or broker submits an initial request carrying the key financials, the property details and the tenancy schedules; the lending team assesses it and issues an indicative offer; full underwriting follows with whatever further information the case needs; and the approval stage comes with guidance from the team to completion. The bank says its lending decisions are made by experienced credit teams with direct access to the decision makers, taking a practical view of risk and cashflow.

Brokers are the main sales channel. LHV recruits introducers through a dedicated route on its business page, keeps the regional relationships that came with the Bank North team, and works from London for the South East and Manchester for the North. The Manchester release also records a cloud-based lending system put in to shorten the lending process, and the enquiry address for commercial loans is the SME lending team direct.

Through us the financials, the property and the tenancy position go to LHV and to the other panel lenders writing the same product in one file, assembled by a named case handler. We arrange the loan and LHV underwrites it and decides. Enquiring does not affect your credit score.

LHV Bank on our panel

At September 2026 our catalogue held 2 live LHV Bank commercial mortgage products sized £500,000 up to £17m, each on a 5 years term, which matches the 5-year maximum the bank prints. The size span runs past the £15m on the bank's page because it describes the products we held on that date rather than a single loan, and the panel changes as products are added or withdrawn.

For context, at September 2026 the panel carried 32 lender brands with a live commercial mortgage on Scottish security, 32 lending on industrial property, 34 on retail and 26 with a buy-to-let product for HMOs. LHV's own pages place it in all four. Those are counts of brands holding at least one live product and say nothing about the bank's own underwriting.