The paperwork that holds everything up
Applications rarely fall over on the numbers. They stall waiting on documents. Here is what to get in order first.
ReadCommercial finance
Commercial property,
funded well.
Buying, refinancing or expanding — office, retail and industrial.
What we cover
What we
work on.
- Owner-occupier purchases
- Buying the premises your business trades from, assessed largely on the business's own financials.
- Investment purchases
- Leased office, retail and industrial property, assessed on the rent, the lease terms and the strength of the tenants.
- Portfolio refinance and equity release
- Moving an existing facility, consolidating several loans into one, or releasing equity for the next acquisition.
- Lease-doc lending
- Where the rent covers the repayments on its own, some lenders rely on the lease rather than full financials, usually at a lower loan-to-value ratio.
- SMSF commercial property
- Buying commercial property inside a self-managed super fund through a limited recourse borrowing arrangement. The fund's compliance is a matter for your accountant and licensed adviser.
- Specialised security
- Childcare, medical, service stations, hospitality and other specialised property, which usually needs a larger contribution and a lender with the right policy.
Our approach
How we
go about it.
The tenancy comes first
Who's in the building, how long they're staying and how good they are for the rent shapes your terms more than anything else.
The file arrives complete
We put the submission together the way an assessor reads one, so their questions are already answered in it.
We argue it where it counts
Pricing and policy exceptions get discussed with the people who can actually approve them.
Typical terms
What it usually
looks like.
General market practice, not an offer or a guarantee. What's available depends on the security, the structure and your position, and is subject to assessment.
- Maximum lending
- Commonly up to 65 to 75% of the property value, and less for specialised property
- Loan term
- Amortised over 15 to 25 years in most cases; some bank facilities run on shorter terms and are reviewed before renewal
- Assessment
- The rent, lease length, tenant quality and how comfortably the income covers the interest
- Valuation
- A panel valuation of the property, ordered by the lender
- Documentation
- Full-doc, or lease-doc where the rent covers the repayments
Getting ready
What you'll
likely need.
- Financial statements and tax returns for the borrowing entity
- Guarantor financial position
- Current leases and a rent roll
- An ATO portal report confirming obligations are current
- A panel valuation of the security
- Contract of sale, where it's a purchase
General market practice, not a Guardian requirement or guarantee. What any particular lender asks for varies by product, security and borrower.
Common questions
Straight answers.
More than you would for a home, and how much more depends on what you're buying. Standard office, retail and industrial sit at one end of the range. Specialised property — childcare, service stations, hospitality — usually needs more, because the lender is taking a view on the business inside the building as well as the building itself.
The only answer worth acting on comes from testing your particular property against the lenders whose policy actually suits it.
One where the rent coming off the property covers the repayments on its own, which can remove the need for full financials if you're not borrowing heavily against the value. Useful if your financials are complicated, or you'd simply rather not hand them over.
It isn't automatically cheaper or simpler. You're trading paperwork for how much you can borrow.
Often yes, within superannuation rules and whichever lenders still write SMSF loans. The structure needs to be correct before finance is arranged. The fund's own compliance is a matter for your accountant and licensed adviser — we only handle the lending.
Far more depends on whether the file is complete than on which lender you use. Missing documents cause most delays, which is why we set out everything needed at the start instead of discovering gaps halfway through.
Enquire
Tell us about
the property.
What it is, who's in it and when you need to move is enough to start.
Sent
Your enquiry is with us.
Expect a reply within one business day. If it's time-critical, call (03) 9988 1452.