Pub funding: finance for UK pubs, bars and clubs

Updated September 2026

Pubs come to us for refurbishments, kitchen or cellar equipment, working capital to get through the quiet months and, occasionally, buying their freehold. Lenders read a pub’s trading from its bank statements and filed accounts.

The products commonly used for each need, and what lenders weigh up when a pub applies, follow below; the choice between them is yours. We work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.

What do pubs typically fund?

Refurbishments lead, because in a pub the room is the product: gardens, kitchens, letting rooms and general refits all change what the site can earn. After that come equipment (cellar cooling, kitchen lines, glasswashers), stock and staffing ahead of peak trading, and working capital across January and February. Tenants approaching a lease renewal or an assignment sometimes fund the associated costs; free-of-tie operators occasionally look at buying their freehold, which is commercial mortgage territory rather than short-term funding.

Need	Product with published criteria for it	Why
Refurbishment or garden build	Term loan or refurbishment funding	Repaid over the years the improvement earns
Cellar, kitchen or bar equipment	Asset finance or equipment funding	Spread over the equipment’s working life
Stock and staff before peak season	Working capital facility	Short-term, sized to the season
Buying the freehold	Commercial mortgage	Long-term borrowing secured on the property

How do lenders look at a pub?

Lenders work from recent bank statements and accounts, alongside time trading. The seasonal shape of pub revenue is not a problem in itself; lenders who fund hospitality expect the January dip and the December peak. What weakens an application is the same as in any sector: erratic banking, returned payments, and tax arrears.

Tied tenants should factor the tie into any plan a lender will see. A funding application built on margins the tie does not allow invites questions; one built on the pub’s actual accounts, tie included, reads as credible. Leasehold operators should also expect questions about remaining lease length when borrowing for improvements to the site.

How lenders treat a pub building and its kit

Sector appetite is the first thing that thins a list, and pubs thin it more than most. A public house is specialist security, and fewer commercial lenders will take one than will lend on a shop or an office. That gap is not about pub trading being weaker. It is about the resale market for a building that was designed to be a pub.

Equipment is an easier conversation, because restaurant and bar equipment is everyday security for an asset lender. Whether the lender will defer the VAT, and whether it will take second-hand kit, are the two questions to ask, and the second matters when a cellar cooling unit is bought from a closing site rather than a dealer.

The three shapes a pub borrows in

Shape one is the building: a garden build, a kitchen where the storeroom was, letting rooms upstairs. Almost none of that spend can be taken back by a funder, so it is lent against the trading account rather than against the works. Fixed fittings that appear on a single invoice, a new bar counter or a servery, can sometimes go through asset finance instead, as a fit-out.

Shape two is the kit: cellar cooling, an ice machine, a kitchen line, a glasswasher. The funder keeps title until the final payment, which is why this shape tolerates a thinner file than the first. Some asset lenders will defer the VAT so the tax is not borrowed alongside the machine, and a cooler bought from a site that has shut is a used-asset case, which not every lender takes.

Shape three is the gap between the Christmas takings and the March rent. Short unsecured facilities, repaid over months rather than years, are offered for that gap. A five-year refurbishment loan taken out to cover one quiet quarter carries interest for five years, and the term of each option is set out before anything is signed, with the choice left to you.

The pub trade in numbers, and what the rates bill did in April 2026

The ONS counted 36,115 VAT or PAYE registered enterprises in beverage serving activities, its class for pubs and bars, in the UK at March 2025. The British Beer and Pub Association puts the number of pubs at 44,650 for 2025, 350 fewer than in 2024 and down from 60,800 in 2000, on figures the Morning Advertiser reported on 6 May 2026. The two numbers differ because one counts businesses and the other counts sites; a pub company with 200 houses is a single enterprise. Both are worth keeping in mind when a lender describes the sector as shrinking, because the enterprise count is dominated by very small operators and the site count by the groups.

Business rates moved in the pub's favour on 1 April 2026. In England, qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure premises with a rateable value under £51,000 now pay a 38.2p multiplier, and those between £51,000 and £499,999 pay 43p, each 5p below the equivalent standard figure. That replaced the 40% relief of 2025/26, which was capped at £110,000 per business. Pubs and live music venues receive a further 15% relief on top for 2026/27 (gov.uk guidance updated 30 March 2026, read 9 September 2026). A cash flow forecast that still carries the old rates line will be spotted by an underwriter, and the corrected one is the stronger document.

Funding a refurbishment without closing the doors

Refurbishment plans stand or fall on the closure period, so lenders and sensible operators plan the borrowing around it. Points worth settling before applying: how long the site is dark or partially closed, what that does to the takings the repayments come from, and whether the work is phased so part of the pub keeps trading. A repayment schedule that assumes normal takings through a six-week closure is the kind of plan that causes trouble later, and it is the first thing to sanity-check in any quote you receive.

The panel behind this page

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.

What a lender asks for

A pub is read on its wet and dry takings, its tie and its premises, and a lender asks for the evidence of each.

✓Recent business bank statements or an Open Banking connection, read for the takings across the week and the year and for the rent, the brewery and the VAT leaving on time.
✓The card acquirer’s statements and the till reports split between wet and dry sales, because the split tells a lender what kind of pub it is reading.
✓The tie: whether the pub is free of tie, tied to a brewery or a pub company, and the terms of the tenancy or lease, since a tied pub’s margin and its freedom to borrow are both set by the agreement.
✓The premises: for a leasehold, the remaining term and the rent; for a freehold, the price and the lender’s own valuation, which for a trading pub is on the profits method.
✓The licences: the premises licence, the designated premises supervisor and the personal licence, because a lender will not fund a pub that cannot lawfully trade.

Which stages are in your hands

A pub’s facility follows the season, the tie and the premises, and the stages below are the licensee’s to control.

The wet and dry split

Till reports that separate drink from food, by month, are the document a lender reads for what the pub is and where its margin comes from. Running them before the enquiry turns a conversation into a case.

The landlord’s or the pub company’s consent

Works on a tenanted or leased pub need the owner’s written consent, and a tied agreement may restrict borrowing against the fixtures. Both are the licensee’s to read and to obtain.

Trading through the works

A refurbishment that keeps the bar open costs less in lost takings than one that closes it. Lenders ask whether the business trades through, and a plan that says how is the licensee’s.

The valuation on a freehold

A pub is valued on its trading, so the valuer needs the accounts and the till data as well as access. Having both ready shortens the report.

What can go wrong

Pub borrowing fails on the tie, the season and the margin.

A tie that restricts the borrowing. Some tenancy agreements forbid a charge over the fixtures or require the owner’s consent to any finance. A lender that finds the restriction at completion walks away.
Level instalments against a seasonal trade. A facility collected in equal monthly sums is paid in February from takings that came in the summer. A licensee who has not put the summer aside finds the winter hard.
Fixtures funded for longer than the tenancy. A refit funded over five years on a three-year tenancy depends on a renewal the owner has not granted.
The wage bill creeping up. A lender reads staff costs against takings before it reads the rent. A pub whose wages have risen above the trade’s usual share is sized smaller.

Frequently asked questions

Can a wet-led pub get funding without food revenue?

Yes. Lenders assess the takings the business actually has, and wet sales show in the bank statements like any other revenue. What matters is consistency over recent months and a sensible purpose for the money, not the wet/dry split by itself.

Can a tenant of a tied pub get business funding?

Where the tenant trades as a limited company or LLP, the tie itself does not block an application. Lenders will expect the numbers in the application to reflect the tie’s effect on margins, and borrowing for major works on a leased site will raise questions about the lease terms and remaining length, so have those details ready.

How is a pub refurbishment usually funded?

It depends on scale and closure time. Larger refits are usually term borrowing repaid over the years the improvement earns; smaller works are often funded on shorter facilities. Whichever route, the repayment plan should be tested against the closure period rather than against normal trading, and any quote should state the total cost as a single figure.

Can I get a business loan for a pub?

Yes, and the amount and the trading record decide which lenders will look. Twelve months of bank statements, with the December peak and the February dip both visible, is the file that gets the fullest read.

What deposit does buying a pub freehold need?

Each lender publishes its own deposit requirement. Lenders treat a pub as a specialist use, and each publishes its own maximum loan-to-value for a going concern, which they change. A trading pub is valued twice, once with the business in it and once empty, and the lender lends against whichever figure its policy names.

Can I finance the pub kitchen equipment on its own?

Yes. Kitchen and bar equipment is ordinary security for an asset lender, and because the ovens and the cooling are the security, a loss in last year's accounts weighs less than it would on an unsecured loan. 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.

Does a pub need a year of trading before it can borrow?

Not always. Some unsecured lenders will look at a business trading under 12 months. A new tenant taking over a house with years of trading behind it is a stronger case than the raw age suggests, and UK limited companies and LLPs can all enquire.

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.

Sources

Sector figures read on 9 September 2026. Lending criteria are general and every lender decides its own case.

Start a pub 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. Reviewed by a named case handler who knows hospitality.

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