Property-secured business loans in Australia: every configuration in one place

Every property-secured business loan, however unusual it looks, is assembled from the same four parts: where the lender sits on the title, what kind of property it is, who is borrowing, and what’s driving the need. Get those four right and the rest (amount, timing, paperwork, exit) tends to fall into place.

This page is the map. It sets out every combination we lend on, from $20k to $5m, and links each one to the page that covers it in depth. If you’d rather be pointed straight to an answer, the first, second or caveat quiz narrows it down in five questions.

What are the four building blocks of a property-secured loan?

1. Position on the title. A first mortgage ranks ahead of everyone; a second mortgage ranks behind an existing lender; a caveat records the lender’s interest quickly and can later be converted to a registered second mortgage. Titles Queensland notes a current title search shows the owners plus registered interests “including mortgages, easements, covenants, leases and caveats”, which is exactly where your position will appear.
2. Property type. Residential, commercial, industrial, rural or vacant land. Each is judged on how readily it would sell.
3. Borrower. A company, a trust or a sole trader, borrowing against property it owns or property a related party offers.
4. Situation. A deadline, a damaged credit file, thin paperwork, or simply growth.

Which position suits which property? The matrix

Read across to find your property type, then down to the position that fits. Each link opens the page that deals with that combination.

Property type	First mortgage	Second mortgage	Caveat loan
Home or residential investment	Private first mortgage · Debt-free property	Second mortgage on your home · Investment property guide	Caveat loans
Shop, office or medical suite	Commercial first mortgage	Second mortgage on commercial property	Caveat loan requirements
Warehouse, factory or workshop	Industrial property loans	Second mortgage on commercial property	Caveat loans
Vacant commercial building	Vacant commercial property loans	Case by case	Case by case
Farm or rural holding	Regional and rural property loans	Regional and rural property loans	Case by case
Vacant land	Vacant land loans	Case by case	Case by case
Several properties together	Multiple properties as security	Mix positions across titles	Mix positions across titles

For the security itself, our property-type pages go deeper: residential, commercial and industrial.

How much can each property type support?

The lending limit changes with the property type, because some property sells faster and to more buyers than others.

Property type	Lending limit (LVR)	What else shapes the amount
Residential	Up to 80% of value	Every existing debt on the title is counted
Commercial	Up to 70% of value	Leases, vacancy and how specialised the building is
Industrial	Assessed case by case, like commercial security	Access, zoning, environmental history and specialisation
Rural and large acreage	Lower than the residential and commercial limits	Location, access, use and the depth of the buyer pool
Vacant land	Assessed case by case	Zoning, services and how readily it would sell

Behind a bank, the limit applies to total debt on the title, not just the new loan. Our page on how much equity you can use shows the arithmetic.

Does it matter who borrows, and who owns the property?

Yes, mainly for who signs and which documents are needed. The lending itself is open to all three structures.

Borrower	Typical security	What to have ready	Read more
Company	Property owned by the company, or by its directors	Company extract, director ID, guarantees	Company or trust owned property
Trust	Property held by the trustee	Trust deed and variations showing the power to borrow and mortgage	Company or trust owned property
Sole trader	Property in your own name, or jointly with a partner	ABN, ID for every owner	Secured loans for sole traders
Any borrower, someone else’s property	A relative’s or related entity’s property	That owner’s ID and independent legal advice	Third-party security
New business	Property owned by the founders or family	A believable plan to repay	Start-up businesses

There’s no minimum trading period or turnover, so a business that started last month is assessed on the same footing as one trading for twenty years.

How do urgency, bad credit and thin paperwork change the structure?

They don’t change the building blocks, only how they’re arranged.

Situation	What usually changes	Where to start
A hard deadline	Caveat or second mortgage first; documents gathered before the call	Urgent secured business loan · Fast second mortgage
Defaults, judgments or ATO debt	More weight on equity and the exit; the purpose often clears the problem	Bad credit secured business loans · Second mortgage with ATO debt
Past bankruptcy	Timing since discharge and who holds the property matter	Secured business loan after bankruptcy
Low doc	Property, ownership and exit evidence replace full financials	Low doc first mortgage · Low doc second mortgage and caveat

Bad credit, defaults and ATO debt are considered and never disqualifying on their own. If one of these describes you, the quickest way to a real answer is to run the 60-second loan check.

What stays the same in every configuration?

Whatever the combination, the core terms don’t move:

• Amount: $20,000 to $5,000,000.
• Term: open, with no minimum and no maximum, and you can repay early anytime with no penalty.
• Repayments: interest capitalised for up to 6 months, so there are no repayments for the first 6 months.
• Property assessment: no sworn valuation; we assess value ourselves.
• Speed: funding in as little as 24 hours from a clean, complete application.
• Purpose: business purposes only.

Land Use Victoria describes a mortgage as the document that “sets out the terms and conditions of the loan”, recorded on the title. That’s true of every first and second mortgage here; only the position and the property change.

Illustrative example: one business, three configurations considered

Illustrative example only; the business and figures are made up.

A Newcastle electrical contracting company needs $600k to fund materials and wages for a large hospital contract. Its two directors own a family home worth around $1.4m with $700k owing to their bank, and the company owns a small strata workshop worth about $900k, debt-free.

• Option 1: second mortgage over the home. Illustrative: at an 80% residential limit, total debt on the home could reach $1.12m, leaving up to $420k behind the bank. Not enough on its own, and the directors would rather keep the home out of it.
• Option 2: caveat over the workshop. Quick, but a caveat suits shorter, smaller needs than this.
• Option 3: first mortgage over the workshop. Illustrative: at a 70% band, the workshop supports up to $630k, covering the $600k with the home untouched.

The company takes option 3, with interest capitalised so there’s nothing to pay for the first 6 months while progress claims come in, and repays from the contract’s final payments.

Ready to find your configuration? See if you qualify

You don’t need to know which box in the matrix you sit in before you enquire. Tell us about the property, what’s owing and what the money is for, and we’ll work out the configuration with you.

The loan check takes about a minute and there’s no credit check to find out, so nothing lands on your file for asking. Your details come only to us as the direct lender rather than being sprayed across a panel of lenders, and a specialist who understands secured lending calls you personally. The more accurately you describe the property and its debts, the more reliable the answer you’ll get.

Find the right configuration for your property →