Specialist Light Industrial Finance in Dartford

Dartford sits in Kent, within the South East industrial market. Light Industrial Finance arranges funding for industrial units, workshops and multi-let estates across Kent. We arrange acquisition finance, commercial mortgages, bridging, development finance, mezzanine and term debt on industrial property in Dartford, for owner-occupiers, investors and developers, and place each deal with the lenders that genuinely back the sector.

Every facility we arrange is grounded in the market evidence. Multi-let rents in the region average around £13.14/sq ft (South East & East multi-let average, Gerald Eve (Newmark), Multi-Let Winter bulletin 2024, Q3 2024), with prime South East estates at £22/sq ft (Gerald Eve (Newmark), Multi-Let Winter bulletin 2024, Q3 2024) and prime equivalent yields around 5.15% (Gerald Eve (Newmark), Multi-Let Winter bulletin 2024, Q3 2024). We then underwrite the specific Dartford property, its income and its occupier demand, on its own merits.

How much you can borrow against Dartford industrial property

On an industrial investment in Dartford, a commercial mortgage usually reaches around 65 to 70 percent of value, so you would budget for equity of roughly a third of the price plus stamp duty and costs. The figure is driven by the quality of the income, the tenants, the unexpired lease terms and the condition of the unit, not the postcode. Vacant or part-let property is funded differently: bridging finance secures an auction purchase or a unit awaiting letting, typically to around 70 to 75 percent of value from around 0.75 percent per month, and development or refurbishment finance funds works to around 65 to 75 percent of cost, with mezzanine stretching the stack where the scheme supports it. Interest rates depend on the lender, the leverage and the income profile, so we quote them deal by deal rather than as a headline rate. We size the right facility, rate and equity requirement for your Dartford deal.

The South East industrial market

Dartford is a prime industrial catchment within South East. Dense occupier demand, constrained land supply and competition from last-mile and trade users support strong rents on well-let estates, and lenders compete hardest for stabilised multi-let income here. Vacant or secondary units are funded on more cautious terms, with the business plan and the borrower doing the work.

The ring of estates around London, from Slough and the Thames Valley to Crawley, Basildon and the Cambridge to Colchester arc, is the largest multi-let market outside the capital and the natural overspill for occupiers priced out of it.

Prime rents in this region run from £22.00 per sq ft in Hemel Hempstead and £21.50 in Crawley down to £10.00 in Colchester and Ipswich, on South East and East of England all-grades averages of £13.14 and £11.66 (Gerald Eve, Q3 2024). The bulletin counts 56 schemes in the regional pipeline but only 1.5m sq ft under construction across two large regions, so the supply squeeze that drove the post-2020 rental run is structural rather than cyclical. Equivalent yields of 5.15 to 5.60 percent keep the region firmly on institutional buy lists, and trade counters remain the largest occupier segment at around a quarter of space. We arrange estate acquisitions, refurbishment programmes and owner-occupier purchases here in roughly equal measure, and lender appetite is the deepest outside London.

Market commentary and figures for South East are drawn from Gerald Eve (a Newmark company) (Multi-Let, Winter bulletin, 2024).