Capital allowances advisors

Each year millions of pounds of tax allowances and reliefs go unclaimed.

Tax issues are often overlooked or considered at a late stage in property transactions, but when the full suite of options for tax allowances are used proactively they can secure significant savings from acquisitions, disposals, developments and brown field remediations.

For many tax is a consequence, rather than a strategy. Working alongside our clients to deeply understand their circumstances we leverage tax reliefs to positively shape property strategies; maximising your potential, opportunities and savings across property transactions and developments.

We understand that commercial business drivers will always dominate property development and investment, but if tax allowances and reliefs are used strategically they can significantly enhance returns. Our experience means that we know where to introduce and implement tax allowance strategies for maximum effect.

Contact us

Construction claim assessment

Capital Allowances is a technical and specialist activity that requires an optimal blend of knowledge, experience, and attitude.

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Our services are provided by senior advisers that have performed at the highest level across a variety of service platforms. Accounting, surveying and property consultancy experience blends together a considered and mature approach to claim solutions. We assume a thorough approach is required in all client requests but wherever possible we adopt simple, clear and disclosed services.

We believe capital allowances are an essential aspect in any project armoury and an invaluable value engineering tool. The inclusion of capital allowances estimates to project viability, feasibility, and financial modelling studies is paramount to enable our clients to fully consider project scope and returns. Maximising capital allowances then becomes an intrinsic project element, providing confidence to clients, and all stakeholders and interested parties.

Having a range of understanding through plant and machinery allowances, general plant, integral features, super deductions and first year allowances, structure and buildings allowances, contributions, grants, repairs, etc requires a holistic experienced approach to evaluate the best approach required.

Strategic acquisition advice

Our consultants have 20 plus years of advising on large and complex transactions through proactive planning and negotiation.

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Best practice and a high level of understanding underpin capital allowances transaction strategies, whether in selling or buying scenarios. Adopting a bespoke forward-thinking strategy establishes a competitive advantage over the opposing transacting parties, and in this respect capital allowances is no different to client investment and negotiation advice. A little proactive planning using foresight and judgement goes a long way to providing knowledgeable and maximised tax outcomes.

The building fixtures environment has evolved many times over the last 20-30 years, with finally, in the last 5 years at least, HMRC achieving a greater level of control and transparency. Significant opportunities remain however, for both sellers and buyers through an understanding of seller structure and positioning, protection and creative use of allowances both unidentified or identified, or knowing the right information required at the right time out with the standard CPSE enquiries. The key to success is in engaging the right expert early.

Sectorising allowances

All industry sectors are unique but require a tailored and transferable approach of core disciplines.

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Our cross trained senior surveying and tax experts have a unique set of skills which are required to assess, evaluate, review and document optimised capital allowances claims for our clients. We believe that core capabilities are essential to maximise savings in all industry sectors including offices, hotels and leisure, healthcare, manufacturing and so on. Whilst some industries require a more truly specialised approach such as the water industry or previously sports stadia and grounds (safety at work), we are also firm advocates of establishing expert knowledge in our client sectors.

Years of experience in listening to our clients business ideas and aspirations has taught us where best to place our focus in building strategies to increase allowances and savings. Existing building alterations may throw up a high degree of incidental assets, hotel projects will include a significant amount of embellishments and finishes, and healthcare builds will contain a high incidence of protective and clean assets. We listen, we learn, and we understand to how best develop our services to serve our individual clients.

Land remediation relief

An extremely rewarding tax relief that necessitates a highly specialised level of qualitative due diligence.

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Capital allowances advice requires a good degree of technical due diligence and entitlement considerations, and a high focus on analytical cost skills. However, the extremely valuable land remediation relief requires an opposing approach. To secure this relief It is fundamentally important to carry out a thorough understanding and review of all relevant client, transaction, property, environmental considerations, remediation strategy, and relevant costs to advise clients property. Failure to do so could be very costly.

A full review of this tax relief by HMRC several years back resulted in higher levels of legislative entitlement to focus the financial benefit where previously intended. Robust due diligence is key and must be enacted with the both the client’s and project consultant’s assistance to enable full disclosure of all relevant case facts. Our consultants are highly motivated to ensuring all client’s take advantage of this valuable project saving but with the correct, detailed approach.

Key capital allowances contacts

Peter O'Brien

    • Principal & Managing Director
    • Valuation Advisory Services
peter.o'[email protected]
Peter O'Brien

News and updates

UK office market remains resilient in first quarter

An image of a building at Pilgrim Place 17 April 2025

The Big Nine regional office markets have shown resilience in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from global real estate advisor Avison Young.

As seen in the firm’s upcoming Big Nine report, which charts regional office activity from nine UK cities outside of London (Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle), take-up has reached 2.1m sq ft, in line with the 10-year quarterly average.

Newcastle had the quarter’s largest deal, DWP’s 170,000 sq ft pre-let at 1 Pilgrim Place, a development with over 400,000 sq ft of Grade A space. The deal was facilitated by Avison Young.

Auto Trader signed on for a 130,000 sq ft pre-let at 3 Circle Square, Manchester, and Network Rail have agreed to an owner-occupier deal at Princes Exchange, Leeds for 109,000 sq ft.

As a result of landmark deals from DWP and Network Rail, the Government and Services industry has dominated Q1 office deals, taking around a 25% share.

Q1 has also seen a strong uptick in out-of-town demand, boosted by five deals in excess of 25,000 sq ft, the highest level of quarterly take-up since Q3 2021. Manufacturing and Industry takes the largest share of out-of-town deals at 18%, with EDF signing on for 78,284 sq ft in Bristol. The demand for out-of-town space could be driven by cost efficiency, as prime city rents continue to rise, or due to demand for larger, more flexible spaces.

Across the nine regional markets, prime rental growth rose quarter-on-quarter by 2% to £39.53 per sq ft, reflecting annual growth of 6%. Glasgow (5.1%) and Leeds (6.3%) saw the most significant rental increases to £41.50 per sq ft and £42.50 per sq ft, respectively. Bristol remains the city with the highest headline rent at £48 per sq ft, followed by Manchester at £45 per sq ft.

Whilst Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool all saw rental growth quarter-on-quarter, all of these markets are severely constrained in terms of new-build developments completing in 2025.

The average rent-free period is beginning to decrease, from 21 months last year to 19 months on a typical 10-year lease, suggesting that demand for office space regionally is increasing, with landlords no longer needing to offer a longer rent-free incentive to secure tenants.

Demand for new and refurbished space is on the rise, with occupiers seeking high-quality sustainable spaces, with 48% of 2025 development completions already pre-let. The market is leaning towards ready-to-go fitted offices, with good wellness and sustainability credentials.

Paul Broad, Managing Director of Avison Young’s National Offices team, said:
“It’s encouraging to see that regional office markets are holding steady, showcasing stability and resilience in what is otherwise a turbulent economic outlook. There is a clear shift towards quality space, with occupiers seeking well-located offices, fitted out with sustainability in mind, with almost half of new developments already pre-let.

“It’s also great to see out-of-town markets continuing to gain momentum, as occupiers look for a cost-effective, accessible alternative to city centre rent hikes.

“We can really see confidence returning to the regional office markets, and we expect this to continue into Q2 and beyond.”

The cities covered in Avison Young’s Big Nine report include: Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.

About Avison Young

Avison Young creates real economic, social, and environmental value as a global real estate advisor, powered by people. As a private company, our clients collaborate with an empowered partner who is invested in their success.

Our integrated talent realizes the full potential of real estate by using global intelligence platforms that provide clients with insights and advantage. Together, we can create healthy, productive workplaces for employees, cities that are centers for prosperity for their citizens, and built spaces and places that create a net benefit to the economy, the environment, and the community.

Avison Young is a 2022 winner of Canada's Best Managed Companies Platinum Club designation, having retained its Best Managed designation for eleven consecutive years.

For further information, please contact:

Leila Jones
Active Profile
[email protected]
07566 793551

Elliot Ramsey
Active Profile
[email protected]
07415 900 406