Server room and rack finance
Fund a comms room build properly, taking in racks, cooling, power and containment as one project rather than a scatter of separate invoices.
- FCA regulatedAppointed Representative, FRN 1031964
- 60+ lendersWhole-of-market panel, not one bank
- 5.0 from 19 Google reviews
- No credit checkEnquiring leaves no mark on your file
Yes, with an important caveat about what is actually being funded. Racks, cooling units, power distribution and environmental monitoring are equipment and can be financed as such. Air conditioning ducting, electrical distribution boards, fire suppression pipework and the room itself become part of the building the moment they are installed, and a funder cannot recover any of it. Fit-outs are therefore assessed largely on the business covenant. Used equipment is rarely funded. The awkward truth is that the more thorough and permanent the build, the less of it a lender can treat as security.
Who finances this
Businesses moving premises and building a comms room from scratch, or firms whose kit has outgrown a cupboard that was never meant to hold it. Insurers and cyber accreditation schemes are a frequent trigger, as is a summer where equipment started shutting down on heat. Multi-site operators consolidating into one properly built room also come to us, along with landlords and serviced office providers fitting out technical space for tenants.
How lenders see it
Fit-outs are where I have to be blunt with brokers. I can put my hand on a rack, a cooling unit and a monitored power strip, and those I will fund as equipment. What I cannot recover is the containment, the electrical work, the sealed flooring or the suppression system, because pulling them out destroys them and the landlord owns the result anyway. So the more the quote reads like building work, the more this is a straight covenant lend. I want to know whether you own or lease the premises and how long is left, because installing significant infrastructure into a property you may leave shortly is a question worth asking. Good projects get funded; I simply price the recoverable and unrecoverable parts honestly.
Buying used
Rarely. Second-hand cabinets and cooling units are available and perfectly serviceable, but funders see little reason to write an agreement against equipment that already has no meaningful recovery value.
Also in IT and technology finance
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Machines we have funded
| APC NetShelter SX 42U rack | Standard server cabinet with doors |
|---|---|
| APC metered rack PDUs | Switched and metered power distribution |
| APC NetBotz environmental monitors | Temperature, humidity and access monitoring |
| Eaton rack air conditioners | Self-contained cooling for cabinets |
| Eaton rack enclosures | Server cabinets and mounting accessories |
| Vertiv Liebert in-row cooling | Close-coupled cooling units for rows |
| Vertiv VRC rack cooling | Rack-mounted cooling for small rooms |
| Panduit cable containment | Baskets, trays and cable management |
| Riello UPS systems | Rack and floor standing power protection |
| Paxton Net2 door controller | Access control on the server room door |
Can I finance the whole comms room build, including the electrical work?
Usually yes as a single project, but understand how a funder sees it. The racks, cooling and power units are equipment; the distribution board, containment and any building alterations are improvements to the property. Most lenders will still fund the package, and simply treat the non-recoverable portion as an unsecured element assessed against your accounts.
We rent our office. Does that stop us financing a fit-out?
No, but it prompts questions. A funder will want to know how long the lease runs and whether you have security of tenure, because a fit-out with more life in it than your occupancy raises an obvious concern. A reasonable remaining lease is normally enough. Landlord consent may be needed for the works themselves.
Is cooling worth financing separately from the rest?
It can be. Cooling units are identifiable, substantial pieces of equipment with a service history, so they sit more comfortably with funders than containment or cabling. Where a project is mostly building work, isolating the cooling and racks on an asset agreement and handling the rest differently sometimes produces a better overall result.
What about fire suppression for the room?
Suppression systems can be included in a project, though the pipework and cylinders are effectively part of the building once commissioned and carry no recovery value. Funders are used to seeing it and rarely object, but it is a covenant decision. Your insurer’s requirements are usually what drives the specification in the first place.
Can we phase the work and finance it in stages?
Yes, and it is often sensible. Each phase can go on its own schedule, which keeps the commitment aligned with the work actually delivered. Tell us the full scope at the outset even if you are only funding the first stage, because a funder that understands the whole plan tends to approve later phases far more quickly.
Tell us what you need
About a minute of plain questions, and no documents to dig out.
Prime is established and profitable with clean credit. Specialist covers newer businesses and credit that needs explaining, the asset carries part of the risk, so finance is often available where an unsecured loan is not.
Illustrative only, not a quote, a flat rate is not an APR, so the APR on a given agreement will be higher. VAT and fees excluded.
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Conor reads every enquiry himself. We will call you within 24 business hours, and it will be the person who actually arranges the finance, not a call centre, and not a form that disappears.
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One adviser from your first enquiry to the money in your account. No call centres.
Your adviser
Conor HullMon to Fri, 9am–6pm
5.0 from 19 Google reviews
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