£33 billion of UK commercial fixed rate mortgage property loans mature in 2026. If yours is one of them, David Farmer explains what to do
You know that moment on Netflix, three episodes into something you weren’t really paying attention to, when it pauses and asks “Are you still watching?” It’s a small, silent judgement. Nobody enjoys it. For me it is a reminder that I was watching something before my phone distracted me two episodes back.
A maturing commercial fixed rate mortgage does something similar. It waits patiently, says nothing for five years, and then taps you on the shoulder at the worst possible time. The difference is that Netflix doesn’t move you onto a higher subscription for forgetting, for fixed rate mortgage moves to a standard variable rate for having a think about it.
That’s the bit people miss. A fixed rate doesn’t end with a bang. It ends with a letter you half-read in March and a direct debit that goes up in September.
This isn’t a niche problem. According to the Bayes Business School CRE Lending Report (May 2026), around £33 billion of UK commercial real estate loans mature during 2026 – roughly 19% of all loans on the books. That’s a very large number of business owners and landlords all arriving at the same junction at roughly the same time.
Most of them took their deal out in 2021. And 2021, if you remember it, was a strange and rather generous year. Base rate was 0.1%. Money was cheap in a way it hadn’t been before and probably won’t be again for a while.
Then came 2022 and 2023, and rates climbed to 5.25%. And now we’ve come back down a bit the Bank of England held base rate at 3.75% on 30 July 2026, with inflation sitting at 2.6% and the next decision due on 17 September.
So here’s the honest position. If you fixed in 2021, you are almost certainly moving onto something more expensive. I’m in the exact same position. That’s just arithmetic and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But – and this is the part worth reading – the gap between the worst version of that and the best version of that is enormous. And it’s almost entirely within your control.
The market you’re refinancing into is competitive. Genuinely, unusually competitive. Competition means a better deal for the borrower.
New lending for UK commercial real estate rose 29% last year to £52.7 billion, the highest in a decade – and roughly 60% of that was refinancing rather than new purchases. Development activity has been sluggish, so lenders have a lot of money to deploy and not enough new-build deals to put it into.
When that happens, lenders start fighting over the deals that do exist. British banks cut pricing on prime office lending by 45 basis points last year; debt funds cut theirs by 30. There is, in plain terms, a price war going on for good refinancing business. Read that again, ‘good’ refinancing business.
Which means a well-presented, well-timed refinance gets treated rather well. And a panicked one, submitted six weeks before the fixed rate mortgage expiry with half the paperwork missing, does not.
I find myself explaining this one a lot, so here it is properly.
A commercial fixed rate mortgage refinance is not a fifteen-minute job. Realistically you’re looking at three to six months from first conversation to funds drawn – valuation, legals, credit committee, the lot. If the property is unusual, or the accounts need explaining, add a month. It takes time even with the best efforts of everyone involved.
So if your deal matures in December and you start thinking about it in October, you have already lost. Not because anyone’s being difficult, but because you’ve removed your own ability to walk away. A lender who knows you’re out of road prices accordingly (ergo, standard variable rates). Every borrower I’ve seen get a poor outcome on a refinance got there the same way – not through a bad property or bad numbers, but through no time. We contact clients by email and SMS 12, 9, 6 and 3 months before expiry. Guess which message most clients respond to?
My message is to start twelve months out. Nine at the absolute latest. That’s not me being dramatic; it’s the difference between choosing a lender and being chosen by one. Preparation for new borrowing is key, the same applies to refinancing an expiring fixed rate mortgage.
It’s a bit like the golf club car park at half seven on a Saturday. Turn up early, you’ve got the pick of the spaces and a leisurely coffee. Turn up at ten past eight and you’re parked on the verge by the bins, wondering where it all went wrong. And yes, if I’m honest I’m probably parked on the verge by the bins but I wouldn’t advise any client to do the same.
The market has shifted since 2021, and the underwriting has shifted with it. Three things carry more weight now than they used to:
Interest cover. For an investment property, lenders want to see the rent comfortably covering the mortgage payment – typically 130% to 145% depending on the asset and the lender. At 2021 rates almost everything passed. At 2026 rates, some things don’t. Work this out yourself before anyone else does, because if there’s a gap, there are things you can do about it – but only if you know early. I find a lot of clients think that because rents have risen in the last few years then everything will be OK, interest rates and the margin lenders want have largely offset that and I am seeing remortgages where clients are putting cash into a property to make the remortgage work.
The tenant, not just the building. Unexpired lease term is doing real work in credit decisions now. A three-year unexpired term on a solid covenant is a different proposition to eighteen months and a break clause. If you can have the lease conversation with your tenant before the finance conversation with your lender, do. This can be more important for corporate lets or short term lettings.
Clean, current accounts. Filed, up to date, and ideally with management figures behind them. Nothing slows a deal down like a set of accounts that are eleven months old and raise more questions than they answer. Lenders want accounts for two reasons – one, to see what the figures are. Two – to see if you have the figures at all. If you can’t provide the figures straight away it is a red flag for most lenders.
Standard variable rates. That’s it. That’s the whole warning. Because SVR isn’t your fixed rate mortgage.
The average SVR in the UK is currently 7.13% (August 2026). Falling onto a lender’s standard rate for even four or five months while you sort out a refinance is, on a £750,000 facility, a genuinely painful number. It’s not catastrophic. It’s just entirely avoidable, which somehow makes it worse.
I’ve had this conversation more times than I’d like. I have a brilliant landlord client near Heathrow, someone very capable, running a good business, who simply had a busy year and let it drift. There’s no shame in it – but there’s no need for it either.
If your fix ends in the next eighteen months, here’s the short version.
Dig out the offer letter and find the exact maturity date. Not the month – the date. Then count back twelve months and put a note in the diary. Try ‘hey siri, remind me to remortgage on…’ it doesn’t have to be difficult.
Work out your current loan-to-value using a realistic figure, not the one from the 2021 valuation. We are seeing caution from valuers so please don’t assume that the property will be valued at your open market figure, allow for a lower number.
Do the interest cover sum at 6.5% and again at 7.5%. If it works at both, you’re in good shape. If it doesn’t work at either, that’s not a disaster, but it is a conversation to have now rather than later.
And then – talk to someone who can see the whole market, not just one lender’s slice of it. Whether it’s us or someone else. Your existing lender’s retention offer might be excellent. It might also be the financial equivalent of the same lender assuming you can’t be bothered to look elsewhere. You won’t know which until you’ve looked, and looking (so they say) costs nothing.
Thirty years in this trade and the pattern hasn’t changed much. The borrowers who do well aren’t the ones with the best properties or the strongest accounts. They’re the ones who started the conversation early enough to have options.
Everything else is detail.
If your fixed rate mortgage is coming to an end in the next year or two and you’d like an honest read on where you stand, I’m always happy to have that conversation. No charge, no pressure, and I’ll tell you if your existing lender’s offer is a good one -because sometimes it is.
David Farmer
Lime Finance Solutions
Twelve months before your fixed rate ends is ideal. Nine months is workable. Anything under six months and you start losing negotiating power, because the lender knows you’re running out of alternatives. The process itself typically takes three to six months from first conversation to drawdown.
You’ll usually revert to your lender’s standard variable rate, which averages 7.13% in the UK as of August 2026 and is often well above what you could get on a new fixed deal. Some lenders will agree a short extension on the existing terms if you ask nicely and early – but that’s a favour, not a right.
If you fixed in 2020 or 2021, almost certainly yes. Base rate was 0.1% then and it’s 3.75% now. The realistic aim isn’t to avoid an increase – it’s to make the increase as small as possible, which is a very different exercise and one where a few months of preparation makes a measurable difference.
Sometimes it’s genuinely the best deal available, and if it is, take it. But retention offers are priced on the assumption that most people won’t shop around. It’s not unlike insurance. Comparing it against the wider market costs you nothing and occasionally saves a great deal. At minimum you’ll know you made an informed choice.
Base rate has fallen from 5.25% in mid-2024 to 3.75% now, and lender competition has pushed pricing down further in some sectors. But nobody can tell you what happens next, and waiting for a better rate that may not arrive is one of the more expensive habits in this industry. Refinance on a timetable that suits your business, not on a forecast. BTW, if someone talks with certainty about where rates are going then they’re lying – opinions are genuinely split.
Then it’s better to find out now than three weeks before maturity. A lower valuation means a higher loan-to-value, which affects pricing and sometimes eligibility. There are usually options – a capital reduction, a different lender with more appetite for the sector, or a restructure – but all of them need time to arrange.
Many borrowers think that property values have risen. Remember that this isn’t about what you think the property is worth, it’s about what it is valued at – and that is a very different thing.
Over 30 years finance experience. Former credit underwriter, founder of Lime Finance Solutions in 2012. Multi Award winning business, featured in Sunday Telegraph, Parliamentary Review, Sky TV and others. Regular contributor to press and business associations. FCA Authorised, ALIBF Qualified. Specialist in Commercial Mortgages, Business Lending, Property and Development Finance.
Tel: 01293 541333
Email: hello@lime-fs.com
Tel: 0207 866 2102
Email: hello@lime-fs.com
Tel: 01293 541333
Email: hello@lime-fs.com
Tel: 0207 866 2102
Email: hello@lime-fs.com
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