Braemar Finance review: loans for dentists, vets and other professions

Braemar Finance is a specialist lender for professional businesses, best known among dentists, vets, opticians and other practice owners. It offers unsecured loans for anything from refurbishments to buying into a practice, as well as tax loans and asset finance. Braemar Finance is one of the lenders on our panel, and we can compare its offer with other specialist and mainstream lenders before you decide.

01About Braemar Finance

Braemar Finance is a trading style of Close Brothers Limited, part of the Close Brothers Group. It describes this as combining the personal service and sector knowledge of a specialist lender with the financial strength of an established bank. Braemar says it has been helping professional businesses for nearly 40 years.

Its UK base is in Dundonald, Ayrshire, and it also has an office in Dublin, lending across the UK and Ireland. It organises its business by profession, with dedicated pages for each sector it serves.

02Who Braemar lends to

Braemar lists nine professional sectors:

• Dental, optical, medical and pharmacy businesses.
• Veterinary practices.
• Accountancy and legal firms.
• Care homes.
• Funeral directors.

Our professional practice finance hub covers how lenders look at each of these sectors, and our care home finance guide goes into more depth for that sector.

03What Braemar Finance funds

Braemar says its business loans need no deposit, and that you tell it how much you want to borrow and over what term, with repayments then tailored to your circumstances. It does not publish fixed loan limits.

One specialist feature stands out: Braemar offers help with NHS clawbacks, turning a liability from missed contract targets into monthly payments. Few general lenders offer that.

Its tax loans are worth knowing about if a large bill is due. Our guides to corporation tax loans and income tax loans explain how this kind of funding compares with an HMRC time to pay arrangement.

04Who Braemar suits (and who it may not)

Braemar is likely to suit:

• Established professionals in its nine sectors who want a lender familiar with how practices earn and spend.
• Associates buying into a practice, or practice owners refurbishing or expanding.
• Partners and directors facing a large tax bill who want to spread it.
• Dental and medical practices dealing with NHS clawbacks.

It may not suit:

• Businesses outside the professions it serves.
• Large practice acquisitions or property purchases, which often need secured lending.
• Practitioners with very short track records or serious credit issues.

05What Braemar looks at

Braemar says decisions are made by in house underwriters, with funds sent by Faster Payments on an agreed date. It does not publish a document list. For unsecured professions lending, lenders typically ask for:

• Recent accounts or tax returns for the practice and partners.
• Business bank statements.
• Details of the purpose: quotes for refurbishment, the terms of a buy in, or the tax calculation.
• Professional registration details and personal information for credit checks, usually with a personal guarantee.

06Pros and cons

Pros

• Deep specialist knowledge of professional practices.
• Unsecured loans with no deposit, according to Braemar.
• Tax loans and NHS clawback help that general lenders rarely offer.
• Backed by an established banking group.

Cons

• Only lends to the professions it serves.
• No published loan limits or terms, so you need to enquire to see what is possible.
• Unsecured lending usually requires personal guarantees.
• For larger deals, secured lenders may offer more.

07Applying through a broker vs going direct

Specialist professions lenders compete hard for good practices, and their appetite differs by sector, deal size and purpose. A dental practice refinance, a vet buy in and a tax bill might each be best placed with a different lender. We search the market, present your practice's figures properly and approach suitable lenders with one application. It is free to enquire; any broker fee is disclosed separately before you proceed.

Use our Instant Quotes tool to compare lenders in minutes. Smart Funding Solutions is an independent broker and is not part of Braemar Finance or Close Brothers. More detail is on Braemar's website.

08Alternatives to Braemar Finance

• Close Brothers is Braemar's parent group, with a wider asset finance offer if you need equipment funding beyond professions products.
• Fleximize offers unsecured and secured business loans to a wider range of businesses.
• iwoca can be a quick option for smaller working capital needs.

To see how unsecured lending compares across the market, read our unsecured business loans guide.