Business funding for vet practices

Buying a vet practice means borrowing mostly against goodwill: the clients, the pet health plans and the medicine and referral income the practice earns. A lender judges the loan on adjusted profit, the vets who stay and the premises, and from 2027 on how the Competition and Markets Authority’s order on vet businesses affects medicine and pricing income.

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What vet practice owners borrow for

Vets borrow to buy a practice, to buy out a partner, to fit out a new branch, and to buy equipment: digital radiography, ultrasound, CT, dental machines, laboratory analysers and theatre kit. Equipment earns its return through the procedures and diagnostics it lets the practice offer, so it suits finance repaid over its working life.

A vet practice does not have to be owned by a vet. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons regulates individual vets and veterinary nurses, and practices can join its voluntary Practice Standards Scheme, but the business itself needs no licence. Defra’s July 2026 paper on the veterinary sector records that large corporate groups now own and manage more practices, so an independent buyer can find itself bidding against them.

A goodwill-led vet practice purchase

Illustrative example

A vet buys an independent small animal practice through a new company for £1,500,000: an assumed £1,250,000 of goodwill, £180,000 of equipment and £70,000 of stock and other assets, with the premises on a lease. The buyer puts in £300,000 and borrows £1,200,000 over 15 years at an assumed 7% a year. The practice’s profit before finance costs and the owner’s pay is an assumed £330,000 a year.

Purchase price
£1,500,000
Buyer’s own money (assumed)
£300,000
Loan over 15 years at the assumed 7%
£1,200,000
Monthly repayment
£10,785.94
Annual repayments
£129,431
Profit left after repayments, before the owner’s pay and tax (£330,000 − £129,431)
£200,569

The profit covers the repayments 2.55 times. Test it with lower medicine income: if the changes in the CMA order cut an assumed £40,000 a year from medicine and prescription income, profit of £290,000 would still cover the repayments 2.24 times. The debt service cover calculator runs the test on your figures.

The CMA order on vet businesses

£21.40the most a practice can charge for a written prescription for the first medicine, from September 2027
£12.70the most for each additional medicine prescribed in the same consultation
£500the expected treatment cost from which a written estimate is required, from September 2027
March 2027practices must publish price lists, practice details and group ownership from 23 March 2027

Source: Competition and Markets Authority, Small veterinary businesses: complying with the CMA’s Order, gov.uk, checked 3 November 2026

The Competition and Markets Authority investigated veterinary services for household pets from September 2023 to March 2026 and published a legally binding order in September 2026, with requirements coming into force in stages to September 2027. Practices must tell pet owners they can ask for a written prescription and that medicines may be cheaper elsewhere, which puts pressure on dispensing income. A lender will ask how much of your profit comes from medicines and what you have planned for the order.

Regulation of vet businesses

In July 2026 Defra published the government’s response to its consultation on reforming the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966. The government accepted recommendations that veterinary businesses, and the practices they own, should come within regulation, with requirements at least matching the CMA order and a duty to meet basic clinical standards. The new Act will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows, and no date has been set.

For a buyer, the compliance cost is known in outline and not yet in detail. Budget now for the order’s price lists, complaints process and prescription changes, and plan for the business itself to register with the regulator later.

A server handing a takeaway order to a customer

What a lender wants to see on a vet practice

The lender reads three years of accounts, with the seller’s pay replaced by the cost of the vet who will do that work, and splits income into consultations and procedures, medicines and food, pet health plans, and referral or out-of-hours work. It looks at active client numbers, health plan members and cancellations, and at the vets and nurses: who is staying, on what contracts, and how hard their roles would be to fill.

It checks the lease and its remaining term, the equipment list and its age, Practice Standards Scheme accreditation if the practice holds it, and any out-of-hours contract, whose notice terms the CMA order now limits. A lender may ask for a personal guarantee and for life and critical illness cover assigned to it.

Buying the company or its assets

Share purchaseAsset purchase
What you buyThe company that owns the practice, with its historyThe goodwill, equipment and stock, moved into your own company
LiabilitiesStay with the company, so you rely on the seller’s warranties and indemnitiesStay with the seller unless you agree to take them on
StaffStay employed by the same companyTransfer to you under the transfer of undertakings rules
Seller’s taxOne capital gain on the shares, which may qualify for Business Asset Disposal ReliefA gain in the seller’s company, then tax again to take the cash out, unless the seller owns the assets personally
Lender’s securityA charge over the shares and a debenture over the companyA debenture over your new company and its assets

The seller’s side of a sale to a corporate group is covered in selling a vet practice to a corporate. Business Asset Disposal Relief charges 18% on qualifying gains from 6 April 2026, and its lifetime limit falls to £500,000 from 6 April 2027. Acquisition finance and management buyout finance fund either route.

Documents for a vet practice purchase

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Your profit against all your loan repayments, new and existing, as the cover ratio a lender works out.

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Questions people ask

How do I finance buying a vet practice?

With your own money and a loan to your company secured on the business, repaid from the practice’s profit. The lender assesses profit after paying for the clinical work the seller did, the staff who will stay, the lease and your experience. Equipment can be funded separately on leasing or hire purchase, and a freehold with a commercial mortgage. The funding search through Swoop covers limited companies, and partnerships borrowing more than £25,000.

Can someone who is not a vet own a veterinary practice?

Yes. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons regulates individual vets and veterinary nurses, and the business that employs them needs no licence today. The government accepted in July 2026 that veterinary businesses should come within regulation under a new Act to replace the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, to be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows.

What does the CMA order mean for vet practice income?

The order requires practices to publish prices, tell pet owners they can ask for a written prescription and buy medicines elsewhere, give written estimates for treatment expected to cost £500 or more, and cap written prescription fees at £21.40 for the first medicine and £12.70 for each additional one. The requirements come in stages to September 2027, and medicine income is the part most exposed.

Can I get finance for veterinary equipment?

Yes. Imaging, ultrasound, dental machines, analysers and theatre equipment can be funded with equipment leasing or hire purchase, with the equipment as security. On hire purchase the practice owns the kit at the end and a company can claim capital allowances on it, including full expensing on new main pool plant. On a lease the leasing company claims the allowances and you deduct the rentals.

Finance is subject to status and to the lender’s terms. A personal guarantee makes you liable for the company’s debt if it does not repay, and it can be enforced against your own assets, including your home. Nothing here is a personal recommendation.

Funding by sector

Acquisition finance

Senior debt, asset-backed lending, vendor finance and equity stacked to fund the purchase of a business.

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Equipment leasing

A lease lets the business use equipment for a monthly rental while the funder keeps ownership.

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Management buyout finance

How a management team buys the business it runs: the new company, the debt, the seller's deferred money and the team's stake.

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Commercial mortgages

A commercial mortgage is a long-term loan secured on premises the business uses or a building let to tenants.

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All business funding

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Funding searches run on Swoop’s platform. Swoop Finance Limited is a credit broker and not a lender, and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 936513). Buzz Accounting Ltd introduces businesses to Swoop and may receive a fee from Swoop when funding is arranged. Business funding is separate from the financial advice Equity & General Financial Services Limited gives through this website. Finance is subject to status, and a lender may ask a director for a personal guarantee.

Cover for a personal guarantee

If a lender asks you to guarantee the company’s borrowing, our advisers can advise on life cover for that debt.

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