Portsmouth and south Hampshire

Business loans and finance in Portsmouth

Construction is Portsmouth's biggest business sector by count, 1,290 of the city's 6,020 registered enterprises (ONS, March 2025), and a builder's funding problem is usually plant, cash flow between valuations or both. Across our panel of 200+ lenders, 33 fund construction plant and 20 write invoice finance (checked September 2026), on borrowing from £5,000 to £25 million.

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A food business we work with on a busy day. Seasonal trade like this is priced on the whole year, not the best month.

Alex BeardsleyFounder & Director

Updated 21 September 20268 min read

Business loans in Portsmouth

A Portsmouth enquiry usually arrives as one of four things: a term loan for a contractor or a marine supplier, plant or vehicle finance, an invoice facility for a firm waiting on the dockyard supply chain, or a card advance for a Southsea venue. The panel behind those requests holds 55 unsecured lenders, 38 asset lenders and 20 invoice lenders (checked September 2026). We act as a broker, the credit broker in the chain, and the lender you go with pays us on completion rather than you.

Take a £50,000 unsecured ask from a Fratton fit-out firm with two years of accounts. 47 lenders on the panel carry a product covering that amount, on terms from 1 to 120 months, with published floors from 4.1% to 70.8% and a median floor of 17% (checked September 2026). Where the firm lands inside that range is decided by the accounts, the statements and any adverse history, and 24 of those lenders will take minor adverse older than 24 months.

Every case gets one person, one application pack and one honest read on the first call, including the cases we think will not place. Saying no early costs a Portsmouth business nothing; a wasted fortnight does.

What we see from Portsmouth businesses

Portsmouth International Port reported on 29 January 2026 that it contributes £400m to the national economy and £195m locally, supports 5,200 jobs, moved 2.9 million tonnes of goods worth £7.5 billion, carried 7.2 million ferry passengers and over 131,000 cruise passengers, and will pay £10.8m into the city council's budget this year. Add the naval base and the businesses we hear from are the ones around those two: engineering subcontractors, ship chandlers, security and cleaning firms, and the hauliers running the Channel routes.

Those firms invoice large customers and wait. An invoice facility turns a 45-day debtor into cash inside two days, and it is the product we reach for first when a supplier tells us the work is there but the money is always a month behind. 14 of our invoice lenders will even take a genuine start-up with signed contracts, against 5 on the unsecured side (checked September 2026).

Southsea is the other Portsmouth, 575 accommodation and food businesses on the ONS count, most of them card-led and summer-weighted. An advance repaid as a percentage of daily card takings fits a seafront cafe in a way a fixed direct debit through February does not, and the lender prices it on twelve months of terminal data. The city's own economic strategy, approved on 15 October 2019 and running to 2036, set the aim of making Portsmouth “Britain's premier waterfront technology and innovation city”; the funding reality for most local firms is more prosaic and we treat it that way.

A contactless payment at one of our client counters. That stream of small transactions is what a card-split lender underwrites.

Which funding type fits which Portsmouth business?

Funding type	Best for	Typical range	Speed (lender-advertised)
Invoice finance	Dockyard and ferry-route suppliers paid on 30 to 60 day terms	£500 to £25 million	1 to 3 weeks to set up
Asset finance	Contractors buying plant, vans or workshop machinery	£1,000 to £50 million	2 to 10 days
Term loan	A firm with filed accounts funding a second unit or a bigger contract	£1,000 to £20 million	2 to 7 days

Ranges show the spread of product limits on the September 2026 panel and say nothing about what one Portsmouth firm will be offered; speeds are as advertised by lenders.

What lenders see in Portsmouth

The ONS counted 6,020 VAT or PAYE registered enterprises in Portsmouth in March 2025, up from 5,980 a year earlier, against 58,650 for Hampshire county (UK business: activity, size and location 2025, Nomis NM_142_1, read 21 September 2026). Construction is out in front at 1,290, up from 1,240; professional, scientific and technical firms number 725, accommodation and food 575, business administration and support 480 and retail 460. The South East region grew from 404,355 to 404,910 enterprises in the same twelve months, a flat picture that a lender reads as neither boom nor bust.

On 9 September 2026 the British Business Bank launched the £210m South East Investment Fund, with loans of £25,000 to £2m managed by FSE Group and equity up to £5m managed by Maven, covering Hampshire and the Isle of Wight along with Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Its first loan, £250,000 to Process Vision in Basingstoke, was announced at launch. The fund is a public scheme with its own application route and we do not arrange it.

The Bank's Nations and Regions Tracker 2025 (7 October 2025) found 44% of South East smaller businesses using external finance in 2024, down three points, and its regional factsheet recorded 14,379 SME loan and overdraft facilities approved in 2024, 57% more than in 2023, worth £1,806m; 15% of the region's SMEs expected to need finance in the next twelve months, 24 points fewer than a year before. The Bank of England's Agents wrote in September 2026 of “less appetite to lend to firms at risk of revenue erosion from AI, smaller firms, or construction and hospitality firms”, which describes a fair slice of Portsmouth, and is the reason we send a construction case to the asset and invoice lenders as well as the unsecured ones.

Dunsbury Park, the port and the Solent Freeport

Portsmouth has two Solent Freeport tax sites on its doorstep: Dunsbury Park north of the city and the port itself. The freeport's £25m seed capital breakdown of 25 June 2026 shows £1.2m at Dunsbury Park for enabling works on units 500 to 502, expected to support around 200 jobs, and £400,000 at Portsmouth International Port for infrastructure including the customs zone. The interim programme review reported in July 2026 put investment delivered across all Solent tax sites at almost £640m in three and a half years, with £1.75bn of international trading opportunities and a further £850m of private investment in the pipeline.

For a business taking a unit on a tax site, the reliefs on capital allowances, employer National Insurance and stamp duty sit alongside the finance rather than replacing it, and a lender funding the fit-out or the first machines will want to see how the two interact. A company buying rather than renting is a commercial mortgage case, with 32 panel lenders on industrial units, or a bridge where the timing is tight: 53 bridging lenders are on the panel and 33 of them will refinance a bridge running out of term (checked September 2026). For property-secured lending we work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.

Counts are from the September 2026 panel pull, available products only, and describe who could look at a case rather than who will approve it.

Where we work around Portsmouth

Gosport, Fareham, Havant, Waterlooville and Hayling Island are handled exactly as Portsea Island is, by phone and email from Nottinghamshire, and so is the Isle of Wight across the water. We do not have local staff on the south coast and will not claim to, but a case handler who has read your accounts is the same person whether they sit in Annesley or Albert Road.

We work with UK limited companies, LLPs, sole traders and partnerships.

The panel behind this page

We can place invoice finance cases with 20 lenders, and 200+ lenders across all products on our panel. That range matters more than any single rate: the lender that suits a five-year-old limited company with clean accounts is rarely the one that suits a seasonal business or a director with a past blip, and a broker with a shallow panel has to force your case into whichever box it holds.

Names you may recognise on the panel

BarclaysLloydsNatWestBibbySkipton Business FinanceKriyaInvestec

Examples from our panel as at September 2026, not an endorsement of any lender and not the full list. We check criteria first and put your case only to lenders whose requirements you fit. The full panel by product is in our lender directory, and how we choose is set out on our how we work page.

Portsmouth business loan questions

What does a Portsmouth business need to start an enquiry?

The last set of filed accounts, three months of business bank statements and a sentence on what the money is for. From that a named case handler works out which of the 200+ panel lenders publish criteria the case meets (checked September 2026; the panel changes over time). Nothing is submitted until you have seen the list.

Can a construction firm in Portsmouth get funding without a homeowning director?

39 of the 55 unsecured lenders on the panel do not ask for a homeowning director, and 33 of the asset lenders fund construction plant with the machine itself as security (checked September 2026). The trading record and the last accounts do the work instead.

How long does invoice finance take to set up for a marine supplier?

Usually one to three weeks, because the lender reviews the debtor list, the contracts and the terms of trade before the first advance. After that, funds against a new invoice tend to arrive within a day or two. A supplier to the dockyard or to a ferry operator with a handful of large, slow-paying customers is the typical case.

Will a bridging lender look at a Portsmouth commercial unit with an existing mortgage?

22 of the 53 bridging lenders on the panel will take a second charge behind an existing mortgage (checked September 2026), provided there is enough equity and an exit the lender can see, normally a sale or a refinance. For property-secured lending we work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.

Is a card advance sensible for a Southsea cafe or bar?

For a venue that takes most of its money by card and trades hardest in summer, an advance repaid as a share of card takings can fit better than a fixed monthly payment. For a business that invoices or takes cash, it fits badly and a term loan usually costs less. We put both in front of you and the lender decides on its own criteria.

Can CapExpand help with the South East Investment Fund?

We can tell you it exists and who runs it, and that is all. The fund has its own managers and its own application process, and it is not part of our panel. A Portsmouth case can be sized for both routes at the same time.

Is CapExpand based in Portsmouth?

No. CapExpand Ltd has one office, at Pure Offices, Lake View Drive, Annesley, Nottinghamshire, and Portsmouth cases run by phone and email with a named case handler from the first call to drawdown.

Do you work with sole traders in Portsmouth?

Yes. We work with sole traders and partnerships as well as limited companies and LLPs for business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and merchant cash advances. Property-secured lending (commercial mortgages, bridging, development and buy-to-let) is for limited companies and LLPs only. Lender criteria differ by structure, so tell us how you trade and we will go to the right part of the panel.

See which lenders a Portsmouth case clears

The form takes two minutes and the answer comes from a person, not a portal. Enquiring does not affect your credit score. You see the shortlist and what each lender wants before we send anything.

Start the form

Sources and references

Every local figure above was read from the sources below on 21 September 2026. Nomis enterprise counts are rounded to the nearest five; the ONS 2026 edition, scheduled for 24 September 2026, will replace the 2025 figures.

CapExpand Ltd (FRN 1060885) is an Appointed Representative of White Rose Finance Group Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630772). We are a credit broker, not a lender. We do not provide financial advice.