What Are Current SBA Loan Rates for Buying a Trades Business?
In FY2025 — the most recent complete fiscal year — SBA 7(a) loans used to acquire trades businesses carried an average initial rate of 9.65% variable (869 loans) and 8.19% fixed (134 loans), on terms averaging just over 11 years. Rates on these loans peaked in FY2024 at 10.53% variable / 8.59% fixed and have eased since. Figures are averages of initial rates at approval for trades change-of-ownership loans specifically, not program-wide rates.
| Fiscal year | Fixed loans | Fixed avg rate | Variable loans | Variable avg rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 124 | 5.48% | 457 | 6.23% |
| 2021 | 134 | 4.97% | 612 | 5.45% |
| 2022 | 85 | 5.68% | 519 | 6.23% |
| 2023 | 107 | 8.14% | 520 | 9.88% |
| 2024 | 105 | 8.59% | 704 | 10.53% |
| 2025 | 134 | 8.19% | 869 | 9.65% |
Data through FY2025 (ended September 30, 2025), from the March 2026 vintage of the SBA loan-level file. This page is refreshed on the SBA's quarterly data releases.
How to read the table
Most buyers borrow variable. 87% of FY2025 trades acquisition loans carried variable rates, a share that has held between 79% and 87% for six years. Variable 7(a) loans typically price off the prime rate plus a capped spread, so the averages above track the rate cycle: a floor of 5.45% in cheap-money FY2021, a near-doubling to the 10.53% peak in FY2024, and a 0.9-point easing in FY2025.
Terms did not move. Average stated terms held between roughly 10 and 11.5 years in every year and every rate environment. The rate shock ran entirely through price, never through tenor.
Rates did not stop the buying. Trades acquisition volume set a then-record in FY2024 at the most expensive money in the file, and set a new record (1,003 loans) in FY2025 — context in Who's Buying the Trades.
Your actual quoted rate will depend on loan size (SBA spread caps vary by size band), the lender, and the deal; the figures above are what the market as a whole paid.
Source and definitions: Lodestar Research analysis of the SBA 7(a) FOIA loan-level dataset (FY2020–2025 approvals; acquisitions = change-of-ownership loans in trades industry codes). Full definitions and limitations: methodology.
Cite as: Lodestar Research analysis of SBA 7(a) FOIA data, 2026.
Lodestar Research publishes market analysis for general information. Nothing on this page is a valuation of any specific business, legal, tax, or lending advice, or an offer to buy or sell securities.
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