Dentists · BC · AB
The practice, the operatories and the office — one project.
Dental is the most established of these categories and the most competitively financed. That is good news for you — but only if your file reaches the desks that want it.
Arranged by Ramin Hallaji, licensed mortgage broker, who takes each file person to person to the healthcare-lending specialists at Canada’s major lenders.
Dental practice financingThe four pillars
What gets financed
The purchase is rarely one number. It is four, and they are underwritten together — which is why, most of the time, the down payment comes out at nothing.
Real estate
The office premises or the building — where the practice owns rather than leases the space it trades from.
Usually 25 yearsFinancing the premisesPractice acquisition
The purchase itself: the active patient base, the hygiene program, the goodwill and the going concern.
About 12 yearsFinancing a practice purchaseLeasehold & equipment
Operatories and chairs, imaging including panoramic and cone-beam, sterilization, CAD/CAM, and the leasehold build-out.
About 12 yearsFinancing leasehold improvementsFinancing equipmentWorking capital
A revolving corporate line of credit — not a term loan — covering payroll for hygienists and admin staff, consumables and lab bills, and the float through the transition. A corporate credit card can sit beside the line.
Revolving lineFinancing working capitalRun the numbers on your own deal
- Will the whole deal qualify?The building, the practice, the leaseholds and the equipment together, year by year.
- What the practice is worthAdjusted earnings, a value on the multiple you choose, and whether that price covers its own debt.
- Rent versus buyThe rent that never stops against a payment that falls and ends.
- Own it, or stay associateYour pay against an owner’s take-home with the loan payment on it.
Also: Cash you need at closing · What the financing costs · Restructuring what you already owe
The shape of the deal
Two clocks, one project — and usually no down payment
As of October 16, 2026, licensed dentists in BC and Alberta commonly finance a practice purchase or start-up to 100% of project cost, most often with no down payment: the practice, equipment and build-out are written over about 12 years, the real estate over 25 years and sometimes 30, with 1–2 years of interest-only at the start; on a variable rate the facility is fully open with no penalty, on a fixed rate it is closed with a blended amortization. A standard owner-occupied commercial mortgage, by comparison, usually funds to about 75–80% of the building’s value, on the same 25-year amortization, sometimes 30, with the same open-on-variable, closed-on-fixed rule, and it is carried by 2 to 3 years of financials and your personal net worth rather than by your licence.
For licensed healthcare professionals this category commonly reaches full-project financing — commonly, not always. Some lenders will go to 100% against the building and still want a contribution against the goodwill and the leaseholds; most of the time the down payment lands at nothing. The building on an amortization of twenty-five years in most cases — occasionally thirty — with the practice, equipment and build-out written over about twelve. The expensive, faster-amortizing piece clears first, so the heaviest year of the loan is the first one, not the tenth.
A year or two of interest-only is usually available while the appointment book fills — and on a variable rate the facility is fully open, so any part of it, the mortgage included, can be cleared early without penalty; on a fixed rate it is closed, with a blended amortization.
These deals are commonly held across two companies — a holding company for the real estate, an operating company for the practice, with guarantees crossing between them. Have your accountant in the room early; that structure has tax consequences well beyond the loan.
Practice financing at a glance
Last reviewed October 16, 2026
| Term | Standard commercial | Healthcare program |
|---|---|---|
| Down payment | Usually 20–25%, less on strong files | Commonly none |
| How much of the project is financed | To about 75–80% of the building’s value | Commonly 100% of project cost |
| Real estate | Usually 25 years, sometimes 30 | Usually 25 years, sometimes 30 |
| Practice, equipment, build-out | Separate equipment and leasehold loans | Written over about 12 years |
| Opening period | Amortizes from the first payment | 1–2 years interest-only |
| Prepayment | Variable: fully open, no penalty. Fixed: closed, blended amortization. | Variable: fully open, no penalty. Fixed: closed, blended amortization. |
| What carries the file | 2 to 3 years of financials and your personal net worth | Your licence first, then 2 to 3 years of financials or projections; net worth counts for less |
The terms this category commonly reaches, not a quote — and “commonly” is doing real work. Some lenders will finance 100% of the building and still ask for a contribution against the goodwill and the leaseholds. What lands on your own file is confirmed to you in writing before you are asked to commit to anything. The standard column is the conventional owner-occupied commercial mortgage as published on mortgageguru.ca.
Affordability
Practice Purchase Calculator (what the practice could carry)
Set the practice’s cash flow and your own assumptions; the estimator shows the borrowing the cash flow could support. It quotes nobody’s pricing — the rate is your input.
Arithmetic on figures you supplied — not an approval, a pre-approval, or an offer. Real estate in a project runs on its own longer clock and can carry further than this single-term illustration.
They arrive in the message box, editable — straight answer inside one business day.
Dental specifics
Where dental files are won and lost
Dentistry has the deepest lender programs of any profession on this site — more institutions publish dedicated dental structures than for any other. The practical consequence: outcomes are decided by where the file goes, not by how good the practice is.
The second dental particular is the operatory count. An expansion from six chairs to eight is not simply more of the same — it is build-out, equipment and a working-capital dip while the new rooms fill, financed against a cash flow that does not yet include them. Treated as one project rather than an equipment lease bolted onto an existing loan, it prices very differently.
Associate buy-ins carry their own structural question. What is being bought is a share of a going concern, and the agreement behind it — particularly what happens when a partner leaves — does more to shape the financing than the purchase price does.
If you already own: healthcare practice brokers in this space commonly advise an annual valuation rather than one only at sale. Whatever you make of that as sale advice, a current valuation is the document that makes an expansion or refinance straightforward instead of slow. (Valuation-cadence advice: Henry Schein Tier Three.)
We work alongside your healthcare practice broker, your accountant and your financial adviser — the financing is built around the deal they helped you shape, not the other way round.
Questions
The ones that come up first
Yes — this is the case the category was built for. A practice purchase is underwritten against the practice: its cash flow, its patient base and the price you are paying, with your licence behind it. Having no filed returns of your own is normal for a first purchase and is not what decides the file.
The financing is against your share and the practice’s cash flow, so the mechanics are similar, but the partnership agreement matters far more than on a full purchase. Departure and valuation provisions in particular shape what can be lent.
Yes, and it is worth doing as a project rather than as an equipment lease against the existing loan. The build-out, the chairs and the working-capital dip while the new rooms fill are underwritten together against the expanded practice.
It usually makes it better. The real estate moves onto the twenty-five-year amortization while the practice and equipment run on about twelve — which is what makes carrying both realistic rather than punishing.
Get started
Bring the deal you are actually looking at
A purchase agreement, a buy-in offer, a set of practice financials, or an expansion you are costing out. Early is better — the structure is easiest to influence before anything is signed.