Gym equipment finance: the machines are the easy part

Gym equipment finance spreads the cost of commercial kit over an agreed term, with the machines themselves as the lender's security. For treadmills, rigs, and plate-loaded machines it works well, and it is usually cheaper than borrowing unsecured, because a lender who can repossess a cross-trainer prices the risk accordingly. The catch is that the machines are the small part. On The Gym Group's own published figures, gym equipment is 20% of what a new site costs to fit out. The other 80% is building works, flooring, and fixtures, and almost none of it has a resale value to lend against.

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Cardio equipment costs the most and wears out first

The agreement itself works the same for a gym as for anything else, and our guide to asset finance loans covers the types. What is different is the kit. The decision turns on one question: how long will you still want this?

The Gym Group publishes the answer. In its investor site visit pack from June 2026, it splits the £300,000 of gym equipment in a typical new site three ways. Cardio is 48% of it, depreciated over eight years. Strength equipment is 33%, over 10 years. Accessories are 19%, over five. So the biggest slice of the budget has the shortest life.

That shapes the agreement, not just the budget. Kit you will replace once inside a 15-year lease is a hand-back question: what condition must it come back in, and does the agreement roll on if you forget to give notice? Kit that outlives two sets of treadmills is an ownership question, which is the real choice behind hire purchase or a finance lease. If you might hand it back at all, a finance lease and an operating lease differ mainly in who carries the resale risk.

The sums are bigger than first-time operators expect. Origin Fitness, whose published prices include tax, lists commercial treadmills from £3,999 to £11,399 and cross-trainers from £3,599 to £6,599, checked on 14 October 2026. Above that tier there is no list price at all, because two of the largest commercial brands run their UK catalogues as quote builders.

One rule decides the structure as much as the kit does. GOV.UK says you cannot claim plant and machinery allowances on 'things you lease (unless you have a hire purchase contract or long funding lease) - you must own them'. Leasing the cardio therefore trades a year-one capital allowance for rentals you deduct as you pay them. Which suits you depends on the profit you have to set it against, so ask your accountant first.

Then budget for doing it again. The Gym Group sets aside about £300,000 for a mid-life refresh between years eight and 12, the same as its original equipment spend. Across one lease, you buy the kit twice.

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A fit-out is three kinds of spend, and they are not funded the same way

The hard part of funding a gym is not the machines. It is everything attached to the building.

The Gym Group puts a typical new site at £1.5m, net of landlord contributions. It splits three ways: £1,050,000 of building works, £300,000 of gym equipment, and £150,000 of fixtures and fittings. Those are a 189-site chain's numbers, and an independent studio will spend a fraction of them. The proportions are what travels. An asset finance lender's security is the 20% in the middle.

The flooring alone is real money with nothing to repossess. Gym Gear lists a 20mm premium rubber tile at £24.99 and a 40mm at £39.99, each covering half a square metre, so roughly £50 to £80 a square metre on its published prices. Across a 400 square metre floor – a round number, not a typical one – that is £20,000 to £32,000 with no second-hand value behind it.

Which does not mean nobody will fund it. Bluestar, a specialist leisure funder, lists gym flooring, fit out, air conditioning, and lockers alongside the machines. One of its published cases funded 'various items of gym equipment as well as new flooring tiles' for a new gym in Wales, at £14,000 over five years. So ask, because a funder that only wants the machines is not the only funder there is. Our guide to commercial asset finance explains why resale value drives what any lender will take.

The tax splits the same three ways, and more sharply. The machines are plant and machinery, so annual investment allowance can cover up to £1m of them against your profits. Lighting and air conditioning are integral features on GOV.UK's list, which get a slower rate. And a floor is a floor. The Capital Allowances Act 2001 treats 'walls, floors, ceilings, doors, gates, shutters, windows and stairs' as part of the building, and section 23 closes the gap for anything 'intended to remain permanently in place'. Structures and buildings allowance may cover it instead, at 3% a year.

That is the difference between up to 100% of a cost in year one and 3% of it. So before you sign, ask the contractor to itemise the quote rather than invoice you for 'gym fit-out', and give the breakdown to your accountant. One invoice is one line in your accounts. Three invoices are three different reliefs.

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Zero-interest finance options

Some lenders offer 0% interest if loans are paid back within an agreed time. The benefit of this kind of finance is in the name: 0% interest. But it does have a few catches.

• Higher upfront costs: 0% finance usually means a higher down payment, which can put pressure on your available cash.
• Shorter terms: The repayment periods for 0% finance agreements are shorter. This means higher monthly payments and less time to spread the cost.
• Less flexible: A lender may restrict you to specific equipment or models, reducing choice.
• Hidden costs: Some 0% deals increase the equipment's price or come with fees that offset the interest-free benefit.

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Your membership income has a January peak and your finance payment doesn't

A finance payment is the same in August as in January. Your revenue is not, and the mismatch is what catches new sites out.

The pattern is published, not folklore. The Gym Group told the market in September 2026 that 'the majority of members join during the first quarter of the year as a result of a post-Christmas drive to improve fitness levels and general health'. A second wave follows in September and October as students return, and the quiet periods fall in the school holidays. Its own numbers give the scale. Membership closed December 2025 at 923,000 and reached 999,000 by 28 February 2026, up 8% in two months, then settled at 991,000 by the end of June.

It builds around that. The same company opened 16 new gyms in 2025 'with a busy opening programme in December, ahead of the January trading peak'. That is where the squeeze sits. You pay the fit-out, the first rent, the installation, and the first finance instalment in the autumn. The members arrive in January.

Membership income is standard-rated too, because the VAT exemption for sport reaches only a non-profit making 'eligible body'. So a £40 membership is £33.33 of revenue once HMRC has its 20%, which is worth building into the forecast rather than the hope. Our guide to tax payments for seasonal businesses goes further on carrying that shape through a year.

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Where a Flexi-Loan fits, and where asset finance wins

Start with the honest answer. If you need a £6,000 cross-trainer, asset finance secured on that cross-trainer will usually cost less than borrowing unsecured, because the lender has something to take back. Use it for the machines.

What it leaves is the rest of the list: the deposit or advance rental, and the VAT you pay up front on hire purchase and reclaim a quarter later. Then the flooring and installation if no specialist will take them, and the months between the kit being plumbed in and the January sign-ups arriving.

A Flexi-Loan can fund stock ahead of your busiest season – MuscleSquad uses one to buy stock in line with its sales cycle. MuscleSquad sells fitness equipment, so it is buying for the same January you are. The kit you order in November and the stock it builds in November are funded for one peak, from opposite sides of the counter. That squeeze lands hardest on a first site, where no existing membership base is there to carry the autumn.

Two things about how it works matter to a fit-out. You have 30 days to draw down after approval, so the money can be agreed before an installation date and taken the week the invoice lands. And overpaying automatically earns a payment holiday, which answers a summer trough: clear more than you owe in February, and you buy yourself room to breathe in August.

It is a business loan with flexible repayment options, not a substitute for asset finance. For a machine with a decade of life in it, the lease is usually still cheaper.