Automotive and transport property loans

Ardent Capital Group brings the same method to every client: execution and strategy, clear advice for smart lending, and long-term growth. That means the right lender, structure and timing, straight advice so you borrow with confidence, and today's deal built toward where you want to be tomorrow. We are specialists in helping business owners secure finance to purchase their own property, and we understand the complex structures that often sit around it, including multiple trusts, holding companies and self-managed super funds. The workshop, depot or yard your business runs from is a working asset, and we take the commercial mortgage to the lenders who are comfortable with automotive and transport sites. That way the finance respects how the operation actually runs rather than being valued through a narrow lens, and the team stays with you as the business expands beyond this site. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

No, and this is the most common misconception we correct. A workshop is standard commercial security, in the same bucket as a warehouse, a shop or an office. It is valued on comparable sales and the rent the premises could command. That is quite different from a pub, a motel or a service station, where the lending gears lower because the asset is specialised. Plenty of operators are quietly geared down simply because a credit team read the word automotive and assumed the worst, and being in the standard bucket is why a workshop freehold borrows further than most people expect.

A workshop or shed typically gears to around 80%. A vehicle yard or hardstand with little building on it sits closer to 65%. Adding equity from another property you own can lift a cross-collateralised structure to 100% of the price. The exact number depends on your file, so talk to us.

Usually not, but it has to be established rather than assumed. Automotive sites have a history, and lenders know it. In Australia the process starts with a Preliminary Site Investigation, which reviews the site history and the land around it. If that raises a question, a Detailed Site Investigation samples the soil and groundwater. The requirement normally reaches you through the valuer rather than through a published credit policy, because a mortgage valuation of commercial property carries a site contamination questionnaire. At least one lender lists contaminated land as an unacceptable security outright, so knowing which lenders will look at your site is the whole job. We get ahead of this at the front of the deal rather than letting it surface at valuation.

The obligation to manage contaminated land generally runs with the land, so a buyer can inherit it regardless of who caused it. That is why the investigation matters and why it is worth doing before you exchange rather than after. It is also why a clean report is a real asset: it makes the purchase fundable, it makes a later refinance easier, and it makes the site easier to sell. Your solicitor will advise you on the contract and on how liability is allocated between you and the vendor. We make sure the finance is built around the position the investigation actually finds.

It is a different asset and we will be straight with you about it. The non-bank lenders who publish 75% to 80% on standard commercial security explicitly exclude service stations, so there is no published number for us to quote and we will not invent one. These are assessed case by case by a much shorter list of lenders. Underground petroleum storage systems are regulated in their own right, and where the operator of an out-of-use system cannot be found, the landowner can be treated as the person responsible, so a buyer can inherit the obligation. We will tell you who is genuinely writing fuel sites, what they will want to see, and whether your site stacks up, before you spend money on due diligence.

No, and it is worth knowing before you make an offer. A property that is mostly open hardstand with little building on it gears lower than a warehouse or a workshop, closer to 65% than to 80%, because the improvements are a smaller share of the value. That is not a problem, but it does change the cash you need, and it is better to know it at the offer stage than at the valuation.

Yes, and it is the most common automotive purchase we do. You already know exactly what the workshop earns, the lender can see a proven operator in the premises, and the rent you stop paying to your landlord is added back when a lender tests whether you can service the loan. The lease you are currently on is also good evidence of what the property is worth to a tenant, which helps the valuation.

Separately from the property, and that is deliberate. A valuer prices the building and the fit-out that forms part of it, not the equipment that can be unbolted and taken away. So the premises carry a property facility and the plant carries its own, usually a chattel mortgage. Hoists, spray booths, wheel alignment rigs, tyre machines and diagnostic equipment are all funded this way. Splitting them keeps the property loan clean, usually improves the rate on it, and gets the whole site funded rather than half of it.

Two to three years of business financial statements and tax returns for the workshop, BAS lodgements, and a clear picture of your labour and parts split. Lenders want to see that the bays are busy and that the work is repeatable, and a fleet, warranty or insurer contract is worth naming in the submission because it is contracted income. Where the business has traded under a previous owner, the vendor’s figures are the starting point, and we help you interrogate them before you rely on them.

For a full-doc application, most lenders want two to three years of business financial statements and tax returns, personal tax returns for all guarantors, the contract of sale, the lease if you are buying the premises you occupy, and any environmental reports on the site. Plenty of operators do not fit a standard full-doc assessment neatly. Alt-doc and low-doc routes exist, supported by an accountant’s declaration, BAS lodgements and business bank statements, at a slightly higher rate. We work through your income situation upfront to identify the best approach.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. Industrial premises sit comfortably inside an SMSF purchase. It is also one of the more intricate purchases in commercial finance, and the detail is what decides whether it works. The fund borrows under a limited recourse borrowing arrangement, so the property sits in a separate holding trust and the lender can only come after that one property. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property. A workshop or depot trading wholly as a business qualifies, and it does not matter whether you or a tenant runs it. A site with a residence on the same title generally does not. Your operating company leases the premises back from the fund, in writing, at market rent supported by an independent appraisal, and the rent has to actually be paid. Cross-collateralisation is not available inside super, so the fund needs its own deposit and the 100% LVR structures described elsewhere on this page do not work here. Lenders cap SMSF lending below a standard purchase, generally between 65% and 80%, and want cash left in the fund after settlement. We know this sounds complicated. It is, and that is exactly why we do it every day. Reach out to our team and we will guide you through the entire process. We structure the finance, tell you which lenders will take a workshop as SMSF security and on what terms, and bring in the SMSF specialists and licensed advisers who set the fund side up. You will not be working it out on your own. Get that right and it is a solid, compliant structure.

Often, yes. A decline usually means the site went to a lender whose appetite did not match it, not that the site is unfundable. The two common causes are a credit team treating a workshop as a specialised trading asset when it is standard industrial security, and an environmental question that was raised at valuation rather than dealt with at the start. Both are fixable. Non-bank and specialist lenders assess automotive property differently and several publish an LVR the majors will not commit to in writing. We will give you a straight answer on whether it is fundable elsewhere.

Going direct means one lender’s appetite and one set of criteria. In automotive the spread between lenders is unusually wide: the majors do not publish an owner-occupier commercial LVR at all, several non-banks publish 80% in their product guides, at least one lists contaminated land as an unacceptable security outright, and the lenders publishing the best standard rates exclude fuel sites entirely. Knowing which lender fits your site is the whole job. Presenting an automotive property to the wrong credit team is how a fundable purchase gets declined.

Most of the time, no. We are paid a commission by the lender once your loan settles. Where a purchase requires significant preparation, a small mandate fee may apply, and we will always be upfront about this before work begins.

Although we are based in Sydney, we service clients across all major Australian cities, including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart, along with their surrounding regional areas. Wherever your premises are located, we can arrange your finance.

Although our main speciality is property loans for business owners, we also assist with fleet finance for transport operators and working capital for transport operators. On asset finance, that covers hoists, spray booths, wheel alignment rigs, tyre machines, diagnostic equipment, tow trucks and service vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry parts and stock, to fund an extension between jobs, and to cover wages.

Yes. That is our core ethos, helping you understand the right strategy, structure and clear advice from the very first conversation. Our main borrower profiles are automotive operators and industrial owner-occupiers seeking finance from $100,000 upwards, and buying the workshop you already trade from is very often a first commercial purchase, so it is well within our wheelhouse. We will walk you through what the property will actually value at, how the environmental question is handled, and the deposit you will genuinely need, before you commit to anything.