Asset Finance for UK Limited Companies (September 2026)

Quick answer: asset finance pays for one specific thing, a van, a machine, a fit-out, IT, over two to six years, with the asset itself as the security. Hire purchase ends with you owning it; a lease ends with you handing it back or renewing. Published flat rates start around 4.4% a year for strong companies, which is nearer 8% to 9% as an APR, and deposits run from nothing to about 20%. It beats a loan for a one-off purchase. This guide, and the pre-check on it, are for UK limited companies and LLPs only. I am an introducer, not a lender or broker, and I have not borrowed from any provider on this page.

Glide Marketing is a desk business. The most expensive asset it owns is a standing desk, so I have never taken out asset finance and I am not going to buy a van to review it. What I have done is read the published terms of the main UK providers, the Finance and Leasing Association's market data, the British Business Bank's guide to leasing and hire purchase, and the rules on who is allowed to introduce whom. This page is that reading, written for a director who needs to buy something the company cannot pay for in one go.

What asset finance is

The British Business Bank's definition is the plainest: asset finance lets a business acquire an asset through leasing or hire purchase, without draining working capital before the purchase. It covers everything from manufacturing plant to office and IT equipment.

The three shapes:

• Hire purchase (HP). You pay a deposit, then fixed instalments over the term. You are hiring the asset from the funder until the last payment, then a small option-to-purchase fee makes it yours. This is the ownership route.
• Leasing. You rent the asset for a fixed or minimum term, often with an advance rental up front. At the end you return it, keep renting, or sometimes replace it. A finance lease puts most of the risk and reward on you and often has a secondary period at a peppercorn rent; an operating lease is shorter than the asset's life and the funder takes the residual value risk.
• Refinance. The funder buys an asset you already own outright and hires it back to you, releasing cash. Useful when the balance sheet is asset-rich and cash-poor.

It is a large, steady market. Finance and Leasing Association members provided £14.0 billion of asset finance to businesses in the first four months of 2026, £8.8 billion of it to SMEs, and £41.1 billion across the twelve months to April 2026, 4% up on the year before.

When it beats a loan, and when it does not

The honest test: can you point at the thing the money buys? If yes, asset finance. If the money disappears into the running of the business, it is a loan or invoice finance conversation.

What it costs, in real numbers

Asset finance is quoted as a flat rate, and the flat rate flatters the lender. It is charged on the original amount for the whole term, even as you pay it down, so the true annual cost is roughly 1.8 times the flat rate. A 4.4% flat rate over three years is about 8% to 9% as an APR.

What the public pages say:

• Portman Finance Group, which describes itself as both a lender and a broker, publishes annual flat rates from 4.4%, agreements from £10,000 to £2,000,000, terms of 2 to 6 years, and limited companies only on its main arm (sole traders and partnerships are routed to a separate business).
• Broker guides put mainstream hire purchase at roughly 4% to 12% APR, with new vehicles and standard plant at the cheap end and used, specialist or soft assets at the expensive end.
• Deposits typically run from nothing for established companies with strong records to around 10% to 20% for younger companies or used assets. In a lease, the advance rental does the same job.
• Fees: an arrangement or documentation fee, commonly a fixed sum in the low hundreds of pounds or a small percentage, plus an option-to-purchase fee at the end of a hire purchase agreement.

Worked example. A limited company buying a £30,000 van on hire purchase with a 10% deposit. £27,000 financed over 4 years at 5% flat: interest is £27,000 × 5% × 4 = £5,400, so £32,400 repayable in 48 payments of £675, plus the deposit, plus fees. As an APR that flat rate is a little over 9%. The same van on a lease would carry a lower monthly rental because you are only paying for the depreciation over the term, but you hand it back at the end.

Tax, briefly. Under hire purchase you are treated as the owner for capital allowances. gov.uk confirms that the Annual Investment Allowance, £1 million a year, can be claimed on all the payments you will make under a hire purchase contract once you start using the asset, but not on the interest. Cars have their own rules and second-hand assets have exclusions. Lease rentals are generally a trading expense instead. Which is better depends on your profits and the asset, which is exactly the question for your accountant, not for a blog.

What lenders check

The pre-check on this page reads the first half of this list, because it is all public.

On the Companies House record:

• Status. Active. Nothing else gets a quote.
• Filing compliance. Accounts and confirmation statement filed on time. Private companies have 9 months from year end (21 months for the first set), late filing costs £150 to £1,500 automatically, and a confirmation statement is due within 14 days of the end of each 12-month review period. Overdue filings read as a live problem.
• Trading history. Most lenders want a few months at least, and the cheapest rates go to companies with two or more years of filed accounts.
• The charges register. Asset finance normally sits outside an existing bank debenture, because the funder owns the asset rather than taking a charge over the company. But a floating charge over all assets can still get in the way, and the funder will ask about it.
• Directors. How many, how long in place, whether the board has churned in the last two years.

Then the things only you can tell them:

• The asset. New or used, price, supplier, and what it will be worth at the end of the term. A new van from a main dealer is easy; a ten-year-old machine from a private seller is hard.
• The deposit. More deposit, lower rate, lower payment.
• Affordability. Management accounts and bank statements if the filed accounts are small-company or a year old.
• The personal guarantee. Expect one on most agreements. Ask what it covers.

The questions I would ask before signing

1. What is the flat rate, what is the APR, and what is the total amount repayable? All three on one sheet. Only the last one lets you compare two lenders.
2. What are the fees? Arrangement, documentation, option-to-purchase, and anything at the end of a lease.
3. Is there a balloon? A large final payment lowers the monthly cost and leaves you owing a lump at the end. Fine if you plan for it.
4. What happens if I settle early? For a company, the early settlement figure is whatever the contract says, not a statutory rebate. Get the formula.
5. Who owns the asset during the term, and what am I responsible for? Insurance, maintenance and keeping it at a stated address are usually on you.
6. On a lease, what happens at the end? Return conditions, wear-and-tear charges, and whether the secondary rental is a peppercorn or a real number.
7. Does the agreement carry a personal guarantee, and what does it cover?
8. Is the funder a Finance and Leasing Association member? Not a legal requirement, but its members sign up to a business finance code.
9. Can the funder pay the supplier directly, and how quickly? It matters when the supplier will not hold the price.

Who it suits

• A limited company or LLP buying a specific, resaleable asset: vehicles, plant, machinery, IT, fit-out.
• A company with a clean Companies House record and at least a few months of trading.
• Trades, haulage, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, healthcare, logistics: sectors where the kit is the business.
• A director who wants to keep cash in the company rather than spend it all on one purchase.

Who it does not suit

• Sole traders and partnerships. Not through this page. Hire purchase to an individual is regulated, and I hold no FCA permission. An authorised broker, or a lender's sole-trader arm, is the right door.
• Working capital needs. Wages, stock, a VAT bill: there is no asset, so it is a loan or invoice finance.
• Assets with no resale value. Software subscriptions, custom-fitted kit that cannot be removed, very old equipment. Some funders do "soft assets" at a price; most do not.
• Companies with overdue filings or a strike-off notice on the register. Fix the record first.
• A purchase you can clear in two or three months. A card with an interest-free period is free; a finance agreement is not.

What I would look for with a £30,000 purchase

Three questions decide it. Will you keep the asset beyond the term? How fast does it lose value? How much deposit can the company spare?

If you will keep it and it holds value reasonably, a hire purchase agreement over three to four years with a 10% deposit is the default answer, because you end up owning it and you claim the capital allowances along the way. If you will want the newer model in three years, or the asset depreciates fast, a lease keeps the monthly cost down and the upgrade easy. If the company already owns kit worth more than £30,000 outright, refinance may release the cash without a new purchase at all.

On the worked numbers above, a £30,000 van on hire purchase at a 5% flat rate over four years costs around £5,400 in interest plus fees, for about £675 a month after a £3,000 deposit. Compare that to the cost of the company not having the van.

I am not naming a provider as the pick. No programme is signed with me yet, and naming one before that would be pretending. What I can do is score the company the way a broker would and hand the case to a lender or broker that fits the asset.

How the introduction works

1. You run the pre-check below. It reads the company's public Companies House record: status, filings, charges, directors, sector. Nothing is stored on this site.
2. It scores the record out of 100 with every factor listed, tells you the two or three things a broker will ask next, and emails me the case.
3. If it is worth taking forward, I come back to you by email with which kind of funder fits the asset and why. You choose whether to be introduced.
4. The lender or broker does the regulated part: the underwriting, the offer, the paperwork. I am not involved in the decision.

How I get paid, and by whom. Introducers are paid by the lender or broker if an agreement completes, never by you. As examples of what programmes publish, Nationwide Finance, a direct lender that only offers loans to limited companies, pays introducers up to 8% on every loan on drawdown. Fundably, a commercial finance broker, advertises up to 30% of its commission to affiliates. Those are public terms, not endorsements: as of September 2026 I have not signed with any asset finance programme, and the table below is deliberately empty of names until I have.

Provider slots (no programme signed, September 2026)

When a programme is signed, its name, its published terms and its status with me go in the relevant row, with the date. Nothing goes in on the strength of a payout alone.

Frequently asked questions

What is asset finance?

Funding for a specific business asset over a fixed term, secured on the asset. Hire purchase ends in ownership; leasing ends in return, renewal or occasionally purchase; refinance releases cash against an asset you already own.

How much does it cost?

Published flat rates start around 4.4% a year for strong limited companies, which is roughly 8% to 9% as an APR. Broker guides put mainstream hire purchase at about 4% to 12% APR. Fees and any balloon sit on top. Compare total repayable.

Hire purchase or lease?

Own it and claim the allowances: hire purchase. Upgrade often, keep the up-front cost low: lease. Your accountant decides the tie-break.

Can a sole trader use this page?

No. Limited companies and LLPs only, because hire purchase and lending to individuals fall inside the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and need an FCA-authorised firm.

Do I need a deposit?

Often. From nothing for established companies with strong records to about 10% to 20% for younger companies or used assets.

Does it beat a loan?

For a one-off asset purchase, usually. For working capital, no.

What do lenders check?

The Companies House record, the asset, the deposit and affordability, then a personal guarantee from the directors.

Sources

Every figure above comes from one of these public pages, checked on 11 September 2026.

1. Finance and Leasing Association, FLA members provided £56 billion of new lending in the first four months of 2026: £14.0 billion of asset finance to businesses in January to April 2026, £8.8 billion of it to SMEs, and £41.1 billion over the twelve months to April 2026, up 4%.
2. British Business Bank, What are leasing and hire purchase? and What is asset finance?: the definitions of asset finance, leasing and hire purchase used above.
3. Portman Finance Group, Asset Finance: annual flat rates from 4.4%, £10,000 to £2,000,000, terms of 2 to 6 years, limited companies on the main arm, both a lender and a broker.
4. Spark Finance, The Complete Guide to Asset Finance for UK Businesses (2026): the broker-guide range of roughly 4% to 12% APR for hire purchase and the deposit and term conventions.
5. gov.uk, Claim capital allowances: Annual Investment Allowance: the £1 million allowance, and the rule that under a hire purchase contract you can claim on all the payments you will make once you use the item, but not on the interest.
6. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, article 60C: the exemption for credit exceeding £25,000 entered into wholly or predominantly for business purposes.
7. Blake Morgan, The Business Exemption under the Consumer Credit Act: plain-English reading of article 60C and the position of companies.
8. gov.uk, Accounts and tax returns for private limited companies: first accounts due 21 months after registration, then 9 months after each financial year end.
9. gov.uk, Late filing penalties: £150 to £1,500 for a private company, doubled for two successive late years.
10. gov.uk, Confirmation statement guidance: one statement every 12 months, filed within 14 days of the review period ending, and strike-off risk if not filed.
11. Nationwide Finance, Introducers: direct lender, limited companies only, up to 8% commission paid on drawdown.
12. Fundably, Affiliates: up to 30% commission share for affiliates.

If you are a lender or broker and a figure attributed to you is wrong, tell me and it will be corrected the same week, with the change logged on this page.

Mike McDonnell, Founder of Glide Marketing