Business funding in Belfast
Belfast has 16,664 trading companies. 2,599 of them (15.6%) have secured borrowing registered at Companies House, below Northern Ireland at 17.4% and the UK at 14.0%.
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Check what you can getHow Belfast's sectors borrow
The biggest sectors in Belfast, and the share of companies in each with a lender's charge registered against them. Real estate & lettings borrows most against its assets here, at 34%.
Older businesses borrow more
Lenders like a track record. In Belfast, the share of companies with secured borrowing climbs with age, which is why a young business often starts with asset finance or a smaller unsecured loan.
Who's lending in Northern Ireland
The 44 new lender charges we tracked against Northern Ireland companies in Q3 2026, by type of lender. Banks made up the largest share.
Funding that fits Belfast businesses
Plain-English guides to the kinds of funding that suit Belfast's biggest sectors.
Source: every live company on the Companies House register at 2026-10-01, analysed by DueLead for its Q3 2026 Pulse report on Belfast. "Secured borrowing" means at least one outstanding charge, a lender's security registered at Companies House, so unsecured loans and overdrafts don't show. Trading companies means active limited companies, LLPs and PLCs, excluding dormant companies, financial services firms and public bodies. Sole traders aren't on the register, so they aren't counted.