Practical guides to the parts of healthcare finance that are genuinely technical, written for practice owners rather than for other brokers.
Valuation and lending mechanics
How lenders decide what your practice is worth and what it can borrow.
- Notional rent explained: the number that determines what a GP practice can borrow, and the presentation mistake most proposals make
- Dental goodwill valuation: what moves the multiple, why principal dependency matters, and why term beats rate
- Pharmacy valuation: EBITDA normalisation, the contract, and the care home question
- Goodwill vs freehold: why the term matters, a worked example showing a 43% swing in monthly cost with no change to the rate
Products and lender behaviour
What is actually available, and why good businesses sometimes get declined.
- What is a professions loan? Unsecured lending priced for regulated practices, and when it beats a secured facility
- Why medical suppliers get declined for invoice finance: concentration limits, public sector debtors and application-based billing
- How regulators affect healthcare lending: why your inspection rating moves lender appetite before it moves your revenue
Nation-specific differences
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differ in ways that change the funding, not just the paperwork.
- Buying a practice in Scotland: missives, standard securities, LBTT and a narrower lender pool
- Property tax on practice premises: SDLT, LBTT and LTT, and the Scottish lease trap most people miss
- Healthcare finance in Northern Ireland: HSC rather than NHS, the RQIA, and an honest account of lender coverage
- GP premises finance in Scotland: the 2018 contract and the transition away from GP ownership
Calculators
Quick indicative figures for the three calculations that come up most often. See all calculators.
Why we write these
Most finance content in this sector is written to rank rather than to explain, and it shows. These guides exist because the underlying mechanics genuinely are complicated, and because a practice owner who understands notional rent or goodwill terms negotiates better than one who does not.
If something here is unclear or you think it is wrong, tell us. We would rather correct a page than leave it.