You might have a great idea for a bricks-and-mortar business such as a beauty salon or a picture gallery. Next you need premises, which remain the most important investment in your business plan for the next couple of years, until you’re ready to scale up or change the focus of your business.
Here’s our guide to choosing the right commercial property for your company’s needs.
Purchase price vs. commercial mortgage
Budget your purchase price. You should look at raising up to 80% of the costs. You could look at unlocking some of the equity in your own home. Speak to your financial advisor about this. You will want to look into special commercial mortgages, which can allow periods of repayment between one and fifteen years.
Buying an existing business vs. starting up
The local papers are a good place to find businesses for sale, as well as local estate agents. You need to decide whether you’re looking to take over an existing business or start anew with a property that needs repair and refitting. You also need to figure out how much you’re willing to spend on this.
Reclaiming tax where you can
Getting a professional to calculate the amount of capital allowances tax you can reclaim. A tax specialist such as RIFT can go further than your standard high street tax accountant or advisor by employing a set of capital allowances experts. Most business property owners don’t know that they can reclaim up to 40% of the value of their property by calculating the amount of tax they can reclaim on interior and exterior fittings.
With these principles in mind, you’re now ready to invest in a commercial property that will double as a fantastic nest egg for the future. Remember that there are many more money saving measures you can take so it’s important to do your research.
I have certainly thought about owning commercial property too. It can be an entirely different beast from residential. Thanks for highlighting a topic that has been lacking in the PF community 🙂
@Roshawn: Looking for options – having accepted that the usual ways to ‘store labour’ are not likely to be open to my generation. Hope to be able to enact some of this soon.
Sometimes I think becoming a landlord would be a pretty good gig and I’d be up for it. Then I think about how busy my life is and the PITA factor and I think hmm… REITs look like a pretty good deal right about now!