Eleven years of rent, and you still don’t own the door you unlock every morning.

The published standard is 20–35%, with LVRs of 65–80%. A strong owner-occupier on quality industrial typically reaches the top of that band. With the right structure and security we fund up to 100% on business and commercial transactions with no additional security. Subject to lender criteria, security position and eligibility.

The full numbers: deposit, LVR and rates, sourced and dated →

Often, once you count what rent does over a full lease term rather than per month, and once the asset is on your balance sheet rather than your landlord’s. It depends on the purchase price, the rent, the deposit you can structure and your holding period. We model it properly in your Action Plan rather than assuming the answer.

Yes. Owner-occupied commercial is assessed more favourably than investment and prices more sharply, indicatively from around 6% per annum as at July 2026. Rates move; this is market context, not a quote.

Yes, where the property qualifies as business real property. Your fund can own it and lease it to your trading entity at market rates. Residential borrowing inside super ended on 10 August 2026, but commercial remains fully available. We run these alongside your accountant and adviser.

It varies by state. South Australia charges no stamp duty on commercial property, which is a material advantage on an Adelaide purchase. Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania all apply duty on different scales. Your Action Plan sets out the figure for your state.

That is a green light, not a gap. Real property security plus trading history is one of the cleanest credit stories a lender can be shown.

That is the single most common trigger for this work and the timeframes are usually tight. Call rather than emailing. The first conversation takes seven minutes and we will tell you immediately whether the window is workable.

Yes. Offices, warehouses, retail and mixed-use held as investments are arranged across the same bank, non-bank and private panel; the whole picture, owner-occupier and investment, is on commercial property loans. Investment exposure prices above owner-occupier and is assessed on lease strength, tenant quality and vacancy risk alongside your own position, so the structuring work matters just as much. If your business will occupy the property, the owner-occupier pathway on this page usually prices better. Subject to lender criteria, security position and eligibility.

No. A single-entity purchase with the deposit in hand and a clean trading history is the straightforward version of this work, and it is welcome: the right lender at the first attempt, a structure that keeps your next purchase open, and settlement in three to four weeks once documents are complete. The premises held through your SMSF, a unit trust with unrelated partners, or a freehold bought together with the business is the complex version. Same reader, same process, same fee model.

Owner-occupiers in Australia can fund the deposit on their premises against a home or an investment property: a lender on our panel writes a business-purpose facility secured on residential property at up to 80% of its value over a term of up to 30 years, in a personal name, company, partnership or trust. Kept on its own facility beside the commercial loan on the premises, it funds the gap without a short-term loan and without cross-securing the house to the business for good; the two are separated again once the premises have grown enough to stand alone. Around half of Australian small business credit is secured this way, and how it is structured decides whether it caps your next purchase. Checked September 2026; subject to valuation and the lender’s assessment.

Medical, dental and veterinary owner-occupiers in Australia can borrow up to 80% of the value of their own premises through a specialist healthcare desk on our panel, ten points above the same lender’s standard commercial limit of 70%, with interest-only available. Specialists and surgeons can add up to $1 million on top, GPs up to $250,000, assessed on their own stabilised personal-exertion income, where the premises are held as security. The practice itself is lent against separately, at up to 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA for GP-centred medical centres, diagnostics and day hospitals and 3 times for dental and veterinary, so a practice and its building can be bought together without the house. Checked September 2026; subject to valuation and the lender’s assessment.

Usually, and the decision belongs with your accountant before contracts. Holding the building in its own entity (a company, a trust or your self-managed fund) and leasing it to the trading business at market rent separates the asset from the operating risk and keeps the next purchase open. Two things do not change with the structure: the lender still wants the directors as guarantors, and it reads the trading business’s cash flow as the source of the rent, so the separation is legal and commercial rather than a way of hiding the business from the credit assessor. The entity also sets the stamp duty and land tax treatment in your state, which is the second reason the accountant goes first.

Yes. Published commercial lending runs at 65 to 80% of value, and a strong owner-occupier on standard office, industrial or retail stock sits at the top of that band. A non-bank on our panel lends owner-occupied premises to 80% of value on a 30-year term with no annual review and no general security agreement over the trading business, which matters more than the rate to a business that wants to borrow again. With the business’s financials supporting the debt and property security in the package, the funded share rises past the band: on 8 out of 10 of our transactions, clients settle at 95% or above. Checked September 2026; subject to lender assessment.

Yes, a written lease at market rent, even though you are on both sides of it. The lender’s valuer capitalises that rent to value the building, the credit assessor tests whether the trading business can pay it after everything else, and the tax treatment of the rent depends on the lease being real. Setting the rent high to support a bigger loan does not work: the assessor reads the trading figures against the rent and shades it, and the lease has to survive an audit. A market rent letter from a commercial agent, a lease drawn by your solicitor and the trading business’s last two years of financials are the three documents that make the file read cleanly.

Twelve months of trading can be enough. On property-secured lending, one year’s financials are accepted to 80% of value by more than one lender on our panel, and an accountant’s letter, six months of BAS or six months of business bank statements carries an alt-doc assessment. What the lender looks for in a young business is the trend inside the year, the industry, and what you were doing before, because a trade you have worked in for ten years and owned for one reads differently from a first venture. The building itself carries the rest: real property security is the part of the file that does not need a track record. Checked September 2026; subject to lender assessment.

Usually, and it is cash you need at settlement. A commercial property sale generally attracts GST unless it qualifies as the sale of a going concern, which needs a tenant in place under a lease that continues after settlement. A tenant buying the building it occupies often cannot use that exemption, because its own lease ends at settlement. The GST is generally claimable on your next activity statement if you are registered, so the cost is timing rather than money lost, but the lender will not fund it inside the property loan, and stamp duty in most states is assessed on the price including GST. Your accountant confirms the treatment before contracts; we fund the gap it creates.

The lender lends against its valuer’s figure, not the contract, so a short valuation reduces the loan and the difference is your equity. Three things reduce the risk: the valuation is ordered early, before the finance clause runs out, not after; comparable sales and the rent under your own market lease are given to the valuer with the instruction, because a valuer without evidence defaults to caution; and a short figure is challenged with a second valuation from another firm on the lender’s panel rather than accepted as final. We have had lender figures corrected this way. It is not always winnable, which is why the finance clause and the deposit are sized with the risk in mind.