Commercial Property Investment 

Experts in commercial property

Our wide experience of buying and managing property and managing SIPPs puts us in an ideal position to meet your needs. We have developed relationships across the property industry and can provide access to a range of support.

Before deciding to invest in commercial property, it is important that you consider both the benefits and the risks of holding a property in your SIPP and the commitments you can expect to make. You also need to understand how your investment can be affected by the way you manage the property.

How we can help

When we acquire commercial property via a SIPP, the ongoing management of the property will be arranged by our in house Property Management Team, unless a third party property manager has been appointed.

We have relationships with a number of key property professionals and a panel of property professionals, and can help you access services to help manage property within your SIPP.

You can still use your own choice of professionals, and are not restricted to the panel; however, fixed pricing and service level agreements have been arranged to provide a streamlined and effective service that you can take advantage of.

You can find links to our Panel of Professionals below.


For new commercial property enquiries

For new commercial property enquiries, please contact your financial adviser.

For existing Curtis Banks clients, please contact the Property New Business Team on 0370 414 7000.


Learn more

We have a wealth of information about commercial property pension investment in our Property Guide, offering key regulatory and process information to help you on your journey with Curtis Banks.

What types of property can you hold in a SIPP?

We own properties across the UK with uses ranging from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Our experience of property purchases, ongoing management and pension administration ideally positions us to provide for your client’s SIPP or SSAS property needs.

If it’s commercial and based in the UK we will happily assess it, be it freehold, leasehold or commonhold. The most common types of property that we see include shops, offices, restaurants, land, industrial units, hotels, and leisure facilities.

We can also hold cinemas, breweries, sports stadia, golf clubs, pubs, museums, dentist/doctor surgeries, forestry, care homes and many, many more. Every property purchase is subject to satisfactory due diligence.

There are some property types that we are unable to acquire. For more information here, please refer to our Property Guide.

When investing in property, a SIPP can only buy the land, bricks and mortar and those parts of the property that are essential to its structure. A SIPP cannot buy any goodwill or fixtures or fittings.



Frequently asked questions


A SIPP can borrow up to 50% of its net fund value less any existing liabilities. The ability to borrow does not cease when benefits are being paid from a SIPP; it can be put in place at any time for the purpose of purchasing or developing property.

The terms of the loan vary from case to case as they are often dependent on a variety of factors (for example, degree of risk to the lender) and any special mortgage conditions will need to be assessed on a case by case basis for acceptability. We will always require that the charge over the property be fixed to the value of the client’s SIPP. We are quite happy to deal with any regulated lender  that meets our requirements. The loan must be in our name as the legal owner of the property and not the client personally.

We are able to facilitate personal lending to the SIPP for property purchases or redevelopment. There are additional requirements in respect of personal borrowing, put in place to ensure compliance with HMRC regulations. These requirements are outlined below:

  • The lender must be the client personally or a business that they are connected to (director/shareholder)
  • Our pro-forma loan agreement must be utilised
  • The client must provide a market comparison of the proposed rates for the loan (to evidence that the loan is representative of an open market agreement)

The income generated from the property must be sufficient to fund all the liabilities associated with the property. Sufficient funding for the property, any required cash float and all associated purchase costs must be in place within the investing SIPP(s) before contracts can be exchanged on a property purchase.

We are also able to facilitate personal borrowing for the purposes of paying VAT due on a property purchase. The above criteria will apply for VAT loans also.

For more details on how to lend via a SIPP, please see our Property Guide. We also have a helpful case study which outlines the process of borrowing funds to acquire a second commercial property via a SIPP, which can be found here.

Ongoing obligations

While we hold property within your SIPP you will need to work alongside us to ensure that the property is managed in accordance with HMRC requirements and the terms of the lease.

Instructions

From time to time we will require your instructions or authority to settle bills or manage the relationship with the tenant. Unless we are legally obliged or contractually entitled to proceed with a particular course of action we will usually seek your instructions. For properties owned on behalf of a group of individuals you and your syndicated members will nominate a lead member for us to correspond with and to supply decisions.

Valuations

Throughout the time you hold a property within your SIPP you may wish to request formal valuations to help with your financial planning. There will also be times that Curtis Banks will require valuations of the property or, either as a result of pension regulations, insurance or due to the terms of the lease. In these circumstances we cannot deviate from valuers advice. Events include:

  • Lease renewals or new leases for connected tenants to advise us of market rents and terms
  • Rent reviews for connected tenants where terms are linked to market rents
  • Taking retirement benefits or, if you are already in capped drawdown, reviewing your income limits. Income limit reviews will be required every three years prior to age 75 and annually thereafter
  • In accordance with the terms of insurance – Please refer to our property insurance notes.

You can nominate a valuer of your choice to carry out the report. If we do not receive instructions from you as to which valuer you wish to appoint we will appoint a valuer from our Panel of Professionals.

Liquidity

It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient funds within your SIPP to meet the liabilities associated with the property, such as mortgage payments, VAT, third party bills (including service charges, business rates, utility bills and insurance) and your SIPP fees. If you do not make cash available to meet liabilities that have been notified to you we may need to force the sale of the property.