The Dental Business Guide
Presented by the team at Samera Business Advisors. The Dental Business Guide is all about helping aspiring dental practice owners build and grow their dental business empire. Tune in for tips and tricks by leading industry experts on how you can start and grow your dental business.
The Dental Business Guide
Why Dentists Can Secure 100 Percent Finance Without A Huge Deposit
Buying a dental practice shouldn’t feel like guesswork. With banks actively competing for strong borrowers, dentists can now access high loan-to-value offers, longer terms, and smarter structures—if they know how to navigate lenders, leases, and the fine print. We unpack what’s actually available in late 2025, why goodwill and freehold can reach up to 100% LTV for the right profile, and how to avoid early repayment traps that turn a “cheap” headline rate into an expensive mistake.
We walk through the real numbers: typical terms for goodwill versus freehold, how leases under the Landlord and Tenant Act affect approvals, and why a 4% base with 1.5–2.5% margin often nets a workable all-in rate. Thinking of a startup? Appetite has improved, with around 70% LTV and higher pricing early on, but a clear route to refinance once turnover and profit stabilise. We also break down the costs buyers forget—arrangement fees, valuations, solicitors—and share a simple way to assess whether your deposit is enough for that £1m goodwill deal.
Not every move is an acquisition. If you’re levelling up with a microscope or CBCT, asset finance can match the debt term to the useful life of your kit without tying up your main facility. Most importantly, we explain why a buyer-only advisory model matters: no conflicts, direct access to healthcare banking teams, and integrated accounting, tax, and due diligence support. From negotiating price and packaging the deal to securing the right lender and preparing for ownership, this is a practical guide to getting funded on your terms.
If you’re exploring an acquisition, startup, refinance, or equipment purchase, tune in, take notes, and then reach out. Subscribe, share with a colleague who’s shopping for a practice, and leave a review with your biggest finance question—we’ll answer it on a future show.
If you require any help, don't hesitate to reach out to the Samera team at www.samera.co.uk. We are all here to help you!
Thank you,
The Samera Team
Right, hello everybody. Aaron here with Euros. How are you doing, Euros? Very well. Good evening, everybody. Okay, so today we are talking about funding and finance for dental practices. Now, what an exciting subject, Euros. Yes. For some, yes, for some no. Okay, well, in our domain and what we work in in this field, we're dealing with dentists of all shapes and sizes. It's a it's a popular subject, and um things are always changing in this sector. So we've been doing financing and funding for dental practices for about 10 years, okay, as part of our Samara business. Um, we've dealt with all shapes and sizes from startups to single purchases to group purchases to refinances to everything. Um, so Euros, what's what's the current appetite like in the dental sector in say now, late 2025?
SPEAKER_00:Very good appetite, I can say. I think the banks are stepping up quite a lot, changing their policies to pretty much reflect the market as well. So you see a lot of competition and therefore much better deals for everybody who's looking into buying their first, second, third practice.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so we've spoken to a bank today, we've spoken to another bank a couple of weeks ago, kind of newer entrants into this sector. They will see dentistry as an exciting sector. Um, let's see how long they last. Okay, that'll be the that'll be the true true test. But as you said, I think even the existing banks in this sector are very favorable and they're trying to compete with each other. So if you're borrowing money in the dental sector, it's a it's a real opportunity to get a good deal if you go through a broker like ourselves, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's absolutely right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, okay. So now someone who wants to buy a practice, typical loan to value for goodwill freehold, what can we get at the moment?
SPEAKER_00:So at the moment, what been usually looking at 90% for goodwill, 100% for freehold. I've seen some lenders as well pushing a little bit on the actual goodwill aspects, matching it 100% as well. So there are some conditions, of course, that it's a case-by-case situation, but there's more and more opportunities to get 100% LTV on both, essentially.
SPEAKER_01:So basically, so 100% on goodwill, 100% on freehold is possible for the right deal for the right individual, correct? Yeah, correct. Yeah, okay, so that's damn rare in any other sector, to be honest with you. Okay, um, me running a chartered accountancy, but I can guarantee I wouldn't get that deal, it's just dentists. Lucky I married a dentist, I guess. Um okay, so in terms of then the term, what kind of years, how many years is this all usually over?
SPEAKER_00:For and on average, for goodwill, we're looking at 15 years, and for a free call, we're looking 20 to 25 years. But if you are buying both at the same time, they can probably do 20 to 25 years as well. But if you are buying Goodwill and it's 15 years, make sure that the lease is 15 years. If it's anything below that, the banks will not even look at it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the and the lease has to be inside the landlords and tenants act. That's an imperative point. Otherwise, if it's outside of it, the banks won't even touch it. Okay. Um, now rates, what are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, base rate at the moment is four percent. It's been going down over the last six months, which is quite good for anybody buying at the moment, and over base we're looking between 1.5 and 2.5 percent. On average, we're looking between two.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so around two, um so around six-ish, but maybe so not too bad. Again, if that base rate does go down, then obviously it's always advantageous. Um always a good point for refinance, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. So now, as we said, there are quite a few lenders in this sector. Okay. Um how does someone go about choosing a lender?
SPEAKER_00:Essentially, this is where we come in place. It's we are the competitors, they are competitive between each other. We know all of them. We go in there, send your application, essentially, talk to all of them, and they will compete between each other to give you the best possible deal. We come back, relay that information, whatever is most preferential to you, the one that's the one you choose.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but sometimes the best rate isn't necessarily the best deal, correct?
SPEAKER_00:That's absolutely true. Yeah, you have something called a um early fee, you know. So you want to repay it as soon as possible, which is quite common with dentistry because you make a little bit better margins than your average industry. So a lot of people want to pay it back as soon as possible, and the banks, some of them still impose a fee for that. So sometimes choosing one that doesn't have that is more preferential to you.
SPEAKER_01:So that's why getting a cross-market understanding of what's available is imperative, and that's kind of what we do, correct? So we have the relationships with all these lenders, they will entertain all our um kind of clients once we've vetted the client, and then they'll say yay, nay, and if it's a yay, then they'll say these are the terms they'll offer, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, correct, correct. And it's very important, I have to say, as well, that we are dealing directly with the healthcare department, you know. Some other brokers might not be in those relationships, but that's where we stand out as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think where we stand out differently also as a firm of chartered accountants for dentists, okay, per se. We have an insight on so many financial factors, not just the funding, but the tax side, the accounting side, management information, all that type of stuff. So we can really help package a deal very strongly for a client and then ultimately get the best terms out there. So, okay, so we've talked about a little bit about the loans for purchases. What about startups? Is there an appetite for that still?
SPEAKER_00:A little bit limited. I have to say it's been increased over the last six months or so. It the panel is a bit more limited than your average acquisitions. So it was increased by not two half a million now. So it's a lot more appetite than it was six months ago. Uh, but the loan to value is about 70% on average, and when we're talking about interest rates, they're between four to five percent above base. But what we always suggest after no, in that case, two years later, when the business becomes profitable, turnover goes up, we can then reapply so we refinance and get you a better deal because it's a proven business at that point.
SPEAKER_01:Correct, yeah. Okay, no, good, good. All right, and then what about I'm I'm a dentist and I've I've no idea, okay, what I can afford. What what what what what where do I start? What do I do?
SPEAKER_00:First have a conversation with me, that's always a good start.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, uh, but overall, by the way, everyone.
SPEAKER_00:So I try. But overall, it's a lot of people think they can't afford a law, but actually they can. As we said, 100% LTV comes with you know a lot of benefits, meaning that you don't have to have enough cap no a lot of capital to actually start off, start off a business, you know. So on average, average is situation, we will say 10%, you know. So if you're buying a million pounds goodwill, 100,000 pounds in your pocket would be the right way to go essentially. But don't forget there's some other fees and valuations and solicitors you will have to involve in the involve in the deal. So always keep a little bit more money on the side as well. But on average, not that much, honestly.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so you alluded to some other fees. So typically when you're buying a practice, what kind of other things are there that have to be considered?
SPEAKER_00:So we yeah, so we have the bank arrangement fee, it's it's between 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent of the overall deal uh valuators, so they will give you a panel of three, four to choose from. Uh, what I've seen people just usually choose the cheapest one, which is about 2.5 thousand, but they range from two to five to no two point five to five thousand, and then solicitors again, depending on the complexity of the deal, on average, about three to five thousand pounds. If we're talking like DSOs and things like that, they can go up to like tens of thousands, but depends on the situation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, everything's different. Uh, and okay, all right, that's that's cool. Okay, so then um we've talked about this is all relating to acquisition or startup finance. We all also do something else called asset finance. So, what's that, Euros?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, so pretty much you're an associate, a practice owner, and you want to buy a new microscope, you want a C B C T scanner, you want to pretty much buy any equipment to improve your daily workings. So if you can't afford that 30k, what we can step in is to essentially do asset finance. So it's a short short-term loan, five, seven years on average, and that's simple as that. The interest rates are not as beneficial, I'll be honest. Uh it's about nine percent, eight percent uh overall, but it gives you a helping hand.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, correct. Yeah, and it's another way of just looking at it. You might not want to extend the the the remember that the the the term of the durable use of that asset you might buy only might only be five years, so you only want the loan to be over five, not over 25 years or some of 20 years, which if you had to do it with a big bank loan. So, asset finance is quite an effective way to borrow money. Okay, so finally, I'll I know we're gonna keep this short today, okay. In terms of Samara as brokers, what makes us different?
SPEAKER_00:What makes a difference? We are purely on the buyer side. I think that's quite a vital role, especially because you have a lot of brokers out there, to be honest, you know, but a lot of them position themselves as the sellers at the same time. And I think you need to understand there's a conflict of interest when you're selling and buying on the same side, essentially. They they make their profit from selling it as high as possible, and they make their profit helping you uh purchase it. So we are purely on your side, so we will make sure that we help you throughout the whole deal, essentially. And we've been in the business for so long, seen a lot of these different cases, and we're just there from A to Z.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and if I could reiterate your very valid point, is that I don't think there's anyone else out there who acts as a buyer's advisor on there on these sales. We purely act for buyers, we don't deal with sales anymore. We did in the past, okay. We're actually merely acting as the buyers' advisors to get our buyers the best deal. So that means from evaluating the practice to helping you negotiate the price of the practice to helping you raise the finance to helping you doing the financial due diligence um um with our accounting team to then transitioning to ownership and then helping you run the practice better as well. So um we're pretty unique in that space. Right. So speaking almost 11 minutes, we're gonna keep it short and sharp. Any final points to add yours today?
SPEAKER_00:No, but please, any conversations, inquiry stages, anything, I'm always available. Quick calendar link, I'm available on WhatsApp, telephone. I think in this modern day generation, everything is pretty much available, and nothing costs you to have this conversation. You know, it's you want to be prepared, you want to be ready, and you want to be informed. And in today's like day-to-day, that's very important.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, as Euro said, we're available. We have evening calls, we have WhatsApp, you name it, you can get hold of us. Um, we're here to support you. We appreciate that buying a practice or starting up a practice is probably up there in terms of value in in the same region of when you buy your first house or getting a house. So it's a big outlay, and you may not understand the mechanics as a team, not just Euros, but myself, other people in the team, we have extensive experience in this, and as you can see from my grey hair, um, we know we know we know what's what to do, and most importantly, what not to do. Okay. Um, so if you're in the market for buying, starting up, um, anything like that, make sure to reach out to us and also check out our website. There's tons of information on there about buying or starting up. We also run events such as our boot camps, which we've been doing for the last 20 years, um, with my wife Smeat, who's a dentist. So we have experience kind of running through our blood. Um, so don't hesitate to reach out. Okay, great. Well, thank you very much, Euros. Lovely to talk to you. Uh that's fine, and we will catch up you all next time. Thank you guys. Thank you, everybody.