A direct private lender for Australian business owners

“Private lender” covers a wide spread of businesses in Australia, from large debt funds to one-person operations. For a business owner with property and a deadline, the label matters less than three practical questions: who actually decides the loan, what will they lend against, and can they do it where your property is?

This page answers all three, and shows how lending works in each state.

What does a private lender actually do for a business owner?

A private lender lends outside the banking system, usually against real property, and makes decisions on the asset and the plan rather than through a bank’s credit-scoring and serviceability formulas. That makes it useful in a few specific moments:

• When timing beats price. A settlement, an ATO deadline or a supplier who wants paying this week.
• When the bank’s policy says no even though the property and the plan are sound.
• When the need is short. Months, not decades, with a clear exit back to a bank or out of a sale.

The Reserve Bank has described non-bank lenders as typically serving parts of the commercial property market where banks are constrained by regulation or risk appetite, and noted their business lending has grown in areas banks had pulled back from, including property lending. That is the gap a private lender fills.

Direct lender, broker, bank or non-bank: what’s the difference?

	Direct private lender	Finance broker	Bank	Non-bank lender
Who decides	The lender itself	A lender the broker picks	The bank’s credit team	The lender’s credit team
Your file goes to	One assessor	Possibly several lenders	One institution	One institution
Decision basis	Property, equity, exit	Depends on the lender	Serviceability, scoring, policy	Mostly policy-based, like a bank
Speed	Days, sometimes hours	Depends on the lender	Weeks	Days to weeks
Term	Short, months	Varies	Long	Medium to long
Extra fee layer	No	Often a broker fee	No	No

Brokers have a place, particularly for long-term bank refinancing. But when a deal has to move quickly, every extra hand in the chain adds time and cost. Here you deal with the lender directly: our lending partner fundU makes the decision and funds the loan. For more on the trade-off, see direct private lender vs finance broker and private lender vs non-bank lender.

Where in Australia can a private lender lend?

Property anywhere in Australia is considered. The loan is documented to suit the state the property is in, because each land titles office has its own procedures for mortgages, caveats and their removal.

State or territory	Titles office	A local detail that shapes the loan	Local page
New South Wales	NSW Land Registry Services	A caveat can lapse 21 days after a lapsing notice is served unless the caveator gets a Supreme Court order	Sydney
Victoria	Land Use Victoria	Mortgages, discharges and caveats are lodged electronically, mostly through PEXA	Melbourne
Queensland	Titles Queensland	Most caveats last somewhere between 14 days and three months, so caveat loans stay short	Brisbane
Western Australia	Landgate	Eligible stand-alone mortgages must be lodged electronically	Perth
South Australia	Land Services SA	An owner can apply to remove a caveat (Form RX), and it is removed 21 days after notice is posted unless the caveator acts	Adelaide
Australian Capital Territory	ACT Land Titles Office	Land is generally held under crown lease, so the lease terms are part of the assessment	Canberra
Tasmania	Land Titles Office (Land Tasmania)	Land dealing forms are accessed online through the Tasmanian Online Land Dealings (TOLD) system	Hobart and Tasmania
Northern Territory	NT Land Titles Office	A lapsing caveat expires three months after lodgement unless proceedings are notified	All locations

The practical upshot: in states where caveats are easier to challenge or lapse faster, a registered second mortgage is often the safer structure for anything beyond a few weeks. Our guide to caveat lapsing notices by state has the full detail.

What will a private lender lend against, and what won’t it fund?

Lends against or for	Doesn’t fund
Residential property: homes, investment houses, units	Personal or household borrowing
Commercial property: shops, offices, medical suites	Unsecured business loans
Industrial property: factories, warehouses, yards	Construction progress-draw loans
Vacant land and rural property, case by case	Loans with no realistic exit
Property owned by you, a company or a trust	Amounts under $20k or over $5m
Any genuine business purpose, including investment and development

Structures available are a private first mortgage, a second mortgage or a caveat loan. Developers are funded against existing completed property; see developer finance secured on property.

Why are more Australian businesses using private lenders?

Private credit has grown into a substantial part of the Australian market. ASIC’s September 2025 report on private credit (REP 814) estimated the market at around $200 billion, with roughly half of it focused on real estate. The same report flagged fee disclosure, conflicts of interest and transparency as areas needing closer attention, mainly in how funds treat their investors.

For borrowers, the lesson is straightforward. Growth brings more choice, and more variation in quality. Before you sign with any private lender:

• Confirm who the lender is, by name, on the Letter of Offer.
• Get every fee in writing before you commit, not after.
• Have your own solicitor review the documents.
• Check the exit is realistic, because a lender who doesn’t care about your exit is planning on something else.

Our guide to checking a private lender walks through each step, and private credit in Australia (2026) covers the market in more depth.

What does a private lender look at before saying yes?

A bank starts with your tax returns. A property-secured private lender starts with the title. The order of questions is roughly this:

Question	What the lender is really asking	Where to read more
What is the property, and could it be sold?	Saleability matters more than a precise figure. A well-located house or factory is straightforward; a remote or unusual property needs a closer look	Residential vs commercial security
What’s already owing on it?	Total debt against the property decides how much room is left and which structure fits	How much equity can I use?
What is the money for?	It must be a business purpose, and the purpose often hints at the exit	Secured business loans
How will the loan be repaid, and when?	The exit is the heart of the decision: a sale, a refinance, a contract payment or trading cash flow	Exit strategy red flags
Who owns the property and who signs?	Individuals, companies and trusts can all give security, but the right people have to sign	Company or trust owned property
Is there a credit or tax history to explain?	Bad credit, ATO debt and past defaults are considered case by case	How private lenders assess a loan

Notice what isn’t on the list: a serviceability calculator and a credit score threshold. There’s also no formal valuation required. The property is assessed directly, which is quicker and avoids a conservative figure from a report written for a bank’s policy rather than your deal.

How fast can a private lender actually move?

Speed is the reason most people call a private lender, so it’s worth being precise about it. Funding is possible within 24–48 hours for up to $5m once documents are in, and smaller property-secured amounts between $20k and $250k are possible the same day. “Once documents are in” is the phrase that matters. The things that most often slow a loan down are on the borrower’s side of the table:

• Identity documents for every owner, director and guarantor.
• The trust deed, including any variations, when a trust owns the property.
• A payout or balance figure from an existing lender, which some lenders take days to produce.
• The exit evidence, such as a signed sale contract or a refinance approval.
• Your solicitor’s availability to review and witness the documents.

If you know the deadline, gather these before you enquire. A loan that could settle in two days often takes a week only because one signature or one statement arrived late.

What does it cost to use a private lender?

Private lending costs more than a bank loan. That’s the trade for speed, flexibility and a decision based on property rather than policy. What you can control is how much you pay in total.

Every loan is priced individually on its security, LVR, term and exit, with the aim of the sharpest price your situation allows. The total cost is made up of interest (which can be prepaid or capitalised), an assessment fee that varies per loan and is shown on the Letter of Offer, and legal and registration costs. Dealing directly removes one layer that often appears elsewhere: there is no broker fee sitting between you and the lender. The two levers that cut cost most are a shorter term and an exit you can execute on time. Our guide to private mortgage costs breaks the components down.

Who suits a private lender, and who doesn’t?

A good fit if you:

• own property with clear equity, personally, through a company or through a trust;
• need $20k to $5m for a business reason;
• have a deadline a bank can’t meet, or a history a bank won’t look past;
• can name the exit and roughly when it happens.

Probably not a fit if you:

• want a 25-year loan with no plan to refinance or sell;
• need money for personal spending or a home to live in;
• have little equity left once existing debts are counted.

How does it work with a direct lender, step by step?

1. Tell us the basics in a 60-second enquiry: the property, what’s owing and the purpose. No credit check.
2. A specialist calls. They confirm the exit, the timing and who owns the property.
3. Structure and terms. First mortgage, second mortgage or caveat, with the amount and term set out.
4. Letter of Offer. Every fee and condition in writing. See the Letter of Offer explained.
5. Documents signed and reviewed by your solicitor.
6. Settlement. Funds released and the security lodged with the titles office in the property’s state.
7. Exit. The loan is repaid and the security discharged or withdrawn.

There’s no formal valuation required, so the usual wait for a report doesn’t sit in the middle of this process. Funding is possible within 24–48 hours for up to $5m once documents are in.

Illustrative example: a Perth engineering business needs $650k to buy materials for a mining-services contract and to clear a tax debt before the ATO escalates. The director’s company owns an industrial unit in an eastern suburbs estate worth about $1.4m, with no mortgage. Two banks want three months of fresh financials. Illustrative: a private first mortgage of $650k, an LVR of about 46%, is offered over the unit for 12 months with interest capitalised. The exit is a bank refinance once the contract’s first year of revenue is on the books. Landgate requires the mortgage to be lodged electronically, which happens as part of settlement.

Talk to a lender, not a switchboard

If your property can carry the loan and the plan to repay is real, a short conversation will tell you quickly. Enquiring involves no credit check, and your details stay with one lender rather than being circulated. A specialist looks at every enquiry and comes back to you personally.

Give accurate figures for the property and what’s owing on it. That is what gets you a firm answer the first time instead of a revised one later.

Start a 60-second enquiry, or read about secured business loans first and then see if you qualify.