UK report /Scotland /Aberdeen
DueLead Pulse · Q3 2026

Aberdeen business borrowing report

16.9% of Aberdeen's 11,121 trading companies have secured borrowing (1,877 businesses), above Scotland at 15.3%.

Covers 2026-07-01 to 2026-09-30 · Companies House file of 2026-10-01 · Free to cite with a link

Share of trading companies with secured borrowing

Scotland
15.3%
214,939 companies · 6th of 12
12.3%17.4%
11.1k
Trading companies
11,121
16.9%
With secured borrowing
+1.6 pts vs region
5.6k
Live charges registered
3.0 per borrower
465
New companies in Q3 2026
still trading at quarter end
5.6%
Late filing accounts
625 companies
In brief

What the data says

01Real estate & lettings is the most secured-borrowing sector here: 44% of its 1,185 companies have a lender's charge.
02465 new companies started in Aberdeen in Q3 2026, and 625 (5.6%) are late filing accounts.
Who borrows

Bigger and older companies borrow more

Share of trading companies in Aberdeen with at least one outstanding charge, by size (from the accounts they file) and by age.

By company size

Dashed line: Scotland overall

Micro
9.5%
Small
29.0%
Medium & large
54.8%
No accounts yet
3.6%

By company age

Dashed line: Scotland overall

0-2 years
3.8%
2-5 years
11.5%
5-10 years
14.7%
10-20 years
21.2%
20+ years
47.1%
By sector

Where secured lending is concentrated

The largest sectors in Aberdeen, ranked by the share of companies with a lender's charge.

Real estate & lettings
43.5%
Business support services
22.0%
Restaurants, pubs & cafes
10.8%
Retail
10.3%
Personal services
8.7%
Construction & trades
7.9%
Professional services
7.1%
Tech, media & telecoms
4.3%
Share with secured borrowingAll sectors in Aberdeen (16.9%)
Town reports

Other towns in Scotland

Every town with at least 2,000 trading companies registered there.

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How we built this report

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. You're welcome to quote and chart these figures with a link to this page.