Grain Store Finance

Spread the cost of grain stores from £60,000 to £500,000+ with flexible finance options. HP, lease, or refinance

Can you finance a grain store?

Yes, grain stores are financed as a standard asset purchase, usually on hire purchase or a lease, with the machine itself acting as the security. UK prices typically run £60,000 to £500,000, and most deals are written over 36–84 months with a deposit of around 10–20%. Decisions typically take 24–48 hours. Used machines are financeable too, usually with a shorter term.

Typical Cost

£60k – £500k

Approval Speed

24–48 hours

Harvest-linked payment profiles available

Rates From

4.6% APR

What would a grain store cost per month?

Grain Store price (ex VAT) £190,000

Deposit 10%

Agreement term 60 months

Annual interest rate 9%

Balloon payment £0

Your estimate

Indicative only. Not a quote and not an offer of finance.

Pre-filled with a typical grain store price. Indicative only, not a quote.

Finance options

Hire Purchase (HP)

Rate: From 5.0% APR
Term: 36–84 months
Deposit: 10–20%
Ownership: Yours at the end
Best for: Arable farms wanting to own the grain store building outright

Finance Lease

Rate: From 4.6% APR
Term: 36–84 months
Deposit: None required
Ownership: Return or buy (balloon payment)
Best for: Tax-efficient, spreads a major building project across several harvests

Operating Lease

Rate: From 5.4% APR
Term: 48–84 months
Deposit: None required
Ownership: Return at end
Best for: Larger arable businesses funding a store as part of a wider grain marketing strategy

Representative example

On a purchase price of £190,000: a 10% deposit of £19,000, then 48 monthly payments of £4,008 at 5.9% APR representative (fixed). Total amount payable £211,384, including the deposit. The rate you are offered depends on your business and the asset.

What buyers actually specify

Guide prices for sizing a finance agreement, not quotes. Manufacturers in this market mostly price on application, so where a current UK list price could not be confirmed the row describes a specification class rather than naming a model. Your supplier quote is what the agreement is written against.

Machine or specification	Guide price	Type
500-Tonne Steel-Frame Grain Store	£60,000 – £110,000	Flat Floor Grain Store
1,000-Tonne Steel-Frame Grain Store	£120,000 – £220,000	Flat Floor Grain Store with Ventilation
2,000-Tonne Steel-Frame Grain Store	£240,000 – £380,000	Large Flat Floor Grain Store with Drying Floor
3,000+ Tonne Grain Store with Handling	£380,000 – £500,000	Large-Scale Grain Store with Intake and Handling

Tax benefits

Steel-frame grain stores may qualify for Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) on qualifying plant elements such as ventilation and handling equipment, up to £1,000,000, with the structural building itself typically falling under the Structures and Buildings Allowance regime rather than AIA. HP gives access to capital allowances; lease payments are fully deductible from farming profits. An accountant should confirm the split between plant and structure for your specific project.

Market context

Grain stores are built by arable farms that want to hold cereals off the combine and sell into the market when prices are favourable rather than at harvest when prices are typically at their lowest, so the investment case usually rests on marketing flexibility as much as on storage itself. Store size is generally set by expected harvest tonnage and how much of the crop the farm wants to carry through the marketing year rather than by farm acreage alone, and because it's a fixed building rather than a mobile machine, replacement or expansion tends to follow growing acreage or a shift towards higher-value contracts needing segregated storage. Established UK agricultural building specialists support the sector with standard flat-floor designs that scale from a few hundred to several thousand tonnes.

Bad credit?

Some specialist lenders consider businesses with imperfect credit histories. You may need a larger deposit or personal guarantee, but options may be available. Fundably may use a soft credit check for matching, which does not affect your credit score. A hard check may happen if you choose to proceed with a lender.

Frequently asked questions

Can grain store finance cover the building, ventilation, and handling equipment together?

Yes. Most lenders will finance the complete project, structural steel building, ventilated floor, and intake or handling equipment, as one facility rather than splitting it into separate agreements, since that reflects how a grain store is actually delivered by the contractor.

How is a grain store valued for finance compared with a machine?

Because a grain store is a fixed agricultural building rather than a mobile asset, lenders assess it more like a construction project, looking at planning permission, the contractor's quote, and the farm's accounts, rather than relying on resale value in the way they would for a tractor or combine.

Can repayments be linked to grain marketing income rather than spread monthly?

Yes. Because the whole point of a grain store is often to hold crop and sell later in the marketing year, agricultural lenders will commonly structure repayments annually around expected grain sales rather than forcing a flat monthly profile that doesn't match when the crop is actually sold.

Do I need planning permission before applying for grain store finance?

In most cases a new agricultural building needs either full planning permission or falls under permitted development rules, and lenders will usually want to see that this is in hand before releasing funds, so it's worth starting the planning process alongside getting finance quotes rather than after.