Motorhome Finance for Business

Motorhome finance for business is commercial funding arranged for limited companies and sole traders buying coachbuilt, overcab or A-class motorhomes. Because the vehicle is bought by the business rather than personally, the business makes the payments, and where your accountant is satisfied the depreciation, running costs, insurance, interest and fees can be set against tax.

Motorhomes are bought through businesses far more often than people assume. Some are hire fleet vehicles earning their keep every week of the season. Some belong to business owners who would rather the company owned the asset than buy it out of income they have already paid tax on.

Either way, the finance works the same, and it works differently to a personal agreement.

This page is for businesses. If you are buying privately as an individual, this is not the right product for you.

We also arrange finance for campervans and panel van conversions. If that is what you are looking at, see our campervan finance page.

Buying a motorhome through your business

The reason businesses do this is straightforward. When the company owns the vehicle, the company pays for it, and the cost is dealt with inside the business rather than out of money you have already drawn and been taxed on.

Where your accountant is satisfied with the arrangement, that means the depreciation on the vehicle can be set against taxable profits, the running costs and insurance are business expenses, and the interest and fees on the agreement are deductible, against corporation tax for a limited company or against your tax bill as a sole trader.

None of that is available on a personal purchase. The motorhome is simply something you own, bought from taxed income, with a business that gets no benefit from having paid for it.

Your accountant will confirm what applies to your circumstances. Our job is to arrange the funding, quickly and on terms that suit the business, and we do that every week.

Motorhome hire and rental fleets

Motorhome hire has grown into a serious business, and rental operators are a significant part of the motorhome finance we arrange.

We can fund a single vehicle for an operator testing the market, or ten for an established fleet. Where you need several at once, arranging them together gives the lender one clear picture of the business rather than a series of unconnected applications. Where the growth is expected but not yet timed, we can often put an agreed credit limit in place instead, sometimes £50,000 or £100,000 depending on the business, so that when the bookings justify another vehicle the funding is already agreed.

Timing matters more in hire than in most businesses. The season runs from spring through to early autumn, and a vehicle bought over the winter is prepared, photographed, listed and earning from the first booking. One bought in May has already missed a chunk of the year. If you are planning to add vehicles for next season, the sensible time to talk to us is now rather than then.

New rental ventures are welcome to apply. See the section below on newly formed businesses.

New motorhomes

New motorhomes from franchised dealers are straightforward to finance. The price is the price, the vehicle is new, and for an established limited company with a clean credit profile the decision is usually quick.

Manufacturer and dealer finance is available, but it is tied to a single funder. We search a panel of over 100 lenders, and on a purchase of this size the difference between the first offer and the best one is rarely trivial. It costs nothing to compare, and we can give you a figure before you visit the dealer.

Used and second-hand motorhomes

Most of the motorhome finance we arrange is on used vehicles, and there is a good commercial argument for buying that way. Motorhomes hold their value better than almost any other kind of vehicle, so a two or three year old example has taken the initial depreciation while leaving you with a vehicle that has years of life and value in it.

Two things matter more on a used motorhome than on any van.

The first is damp. Water ingress is what destroys motorhome values, and it is not always obvious on a walk round. A full habitation service history, with damp readings recorded at each service, is the single best evidence that a vehicle has been looked after. A motorhome with a complete habitation record is worth more, sells more easily and is a more comfortable proposition all round.

The second is the base vehicle history. A motorhome has two service records, one for the habitation side and one for the chassis and engine underneath. Buyers often check the first and forget the second. Both are worth having.

Send us the details of anything you are looking at and we will tell you what it should fund at before you commit to it.

The types of motorhome we finance

Coachbuilts are built by recognised manufacturers such as Swift, Auto-Trail, Bailey, Elddis, Adria, Hymer, Bürstner and Rapido, on chassis cabs from Fiat, Peugeot, Citroën, Mercedes-Benz and Ford. That makes them a straightforward asset to fund. Unlike a one-off van conversion, a coachbuilt from a known manufacturer has published guide values, so there is no valuation case to argue before a lender will look at it.

Panel van conversions are sometimes described as motorhomes too. If the vehicle you are looking at started life as a van and was converted inside, our campervan finance page covers those.

Weight and driving licences

Worth checking before you commit to a vehicle, though it makes no difference to the finance.

Many coachbuilts sit at or just under 3,500kg, which anyone with a standard category B car licence can drive. Larger coachbuilts and most A-class motorhomes weigh more than that, commonly between 3.5 and 5 tonnes, and drivers who passed their car test on or after 1 January 1997 need C1 entitlement to drive them, which means an additional test and a medical. Drivers who passed before that date usually hold C1 already.

It is worth confirming the plated weight of the specific vehicle rather than the model in general, particularly on anything close to the limit once it is loaded.

Buying privately

A great many motorhomes change hands privately rather than through a dealer, and the prices reflect it.

Plenty of lenders will not consider a private purchase at all. We can, provided the seller can demonstrate they own the vehicle outright and have clear title to it. We are happy to speak to them directly and explain what the lender needs to see, which is normally the part that stalls these deals when people try to arrange them alone.

If you have found a motorhome being sold privately, tell us before you commit. It is usually workable, and the saving against dealer pricing is often substantial.

Get pre-approved before you go looking

Motorhome buying happens in bursts. The shows, dealer open weekends, the start of the season. Good vehicles at sensible money get bought on the day, and a buyer who still has to arrange finance is a buyer who loses out to one who does not.

Getting pre-approved first means you know what the business can borrow and over what term, so you can negotiate the price as a cash buyer would and commit on the spot when the right vehicle appears.

Terms and monthly payments

Business motorhome finance typically runs over a term of up to five years. That is shorter than the very long terms common in the consumer leisure market, and it reflects the way business finance is structured.

Where keeping the monthly payment down matters, we can often build in a balloon payment at the end of the agreement, which reduces the monthly cost with a larger final payment that can be settled, refinanced or covered by selling the vehicle. We will talk through whether that suits your situation before anything is submitted.

What we can arrange that a dealer cannot

Dealer finance is convenient and sometimes the rate is genuinely competitive. What it rarely includes is any of the following.

VAT deferral

Where VAT is charged on the purchase, the lender can pay the supplier the full price including the VAT on qualifying agreements, then collect the VAT element from your business as a single payment after an agreed period, usually around three months. That gives you time to reclaim it from HMRC first, and there is no charge for the facility. On a purchase of this size it is a significant sum staying in the business.

Little or no deposit

Dealers commonly ask for 10 to 20 per cent down. For a VAT-registered limited company with a reasonable credit profile buying at a sensible market price, no deposit at all is a normal outcome with us. Our no deposit van finance page explains when that is realistic.

A credit facility for the vehicles you have not bought yet

A dealer can sell you finance on the motorhome in front of you. They cannot agree a limit now for the vehicles you will want when next season's bookings come in.

Finance on a private purchase

Most dealer and manufacturer finance only exists to fund the vehicle on their own forecourt. If you have found something privately, they are no help at all.

Newly formed businesses

New limited companies and businesses under two years old can apply, including rental ventures that have not yet started trading.

Without a trading record, lenders lean on the director's personal credit history, and a deposit is usually required. What genuinely helps a new hire business is evidence that the plan is real: projected income at a sensible level of utilisation, any bookings or agreements already in place, and relevant experience. No vehicle is hired out every week of the year, and a plan that reflects that reads far better to an underwriter than one that assumes otherwise.

Our new business van finance page sets out what lenders look for in more detail.

Who can apply

Limited companies can borrow from £10,000. Sole traders can borrow from £25,000, on unregulated credit agreements, because the lenders we work with offer commercial finance only. Most motorhome purchases sit comfortably above both figures.

Established businesses, hire operators, newly formed companies and businesses buying their first vehicle are all welcome to apply. A difficult credit history does not close the door either, and our bad credit van finance page explains how those applications are approached.