Mechanic workshop property finance

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 hoists, pits and specialised fit-out are treated as strengths rather than something that makes the property read as niche, with repayments set to work alongside the day-to-day running of the shop. Our team stays in your corner as the business builds. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

No. A workshop is standard commercial security, in the same bucket as a warehouse, a shop or an office, and 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 mechanics are quietly geared down simply because a credit team read the word automotive and assumed the worst. Being in the standard bucket is why a workshop freehold borrows further than the number you were probably quoted.

A workshop or shed typically gears to around 80%. Adding equity from a residential property or other business assets you already own can lift a cross-collateralised structure to 100% of the purchase price. The exact number depends on your file and serviceability, so talk to us.

Usually not, but it has to be established rather than assumed. Waste oil, degreasers and solvents are part of running a workshop, and the environment regulators list engine works among the activities that can affect a site. In Australia the process starts with a Preliminary Site Investigation, which reviews the site history and the land around it. Only if that raises a question does it go to a Detailed Site Investigation, which samples soil and groundwater. The requirement normally reaches you through the valuer rather than a published credit policy, because a commercial mortgage valuation carries a site contamination questionnaire. At least one lender lists contaminated land as an unacceptable security outright. We get ahead of this at the front of the deal, so the position is settled early and the finance stays on track.

No, and the difference is large and in your favour. A service station stores fuel underground, which brings a regulatory regime of its own: registration, monitoring, and obligations that continue for as long as the tanks are in the ground. That is why the non-bank lenders publishing the best standard rates exclude service stations outright. A mechanic workshop has no underground fuel storage, so none of that applies to you. You have an ordinary industrial building with a site history to check, and that is a far simpler and far better-funded proposition.

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 when you come to it. Your solicitor will advise you on the contract and on how liability is allocated between you and the vendor. We build the finance around the position the investigation actually finds.

Separately from the property, and that is deliberate. Hoists, wheel alignment rigs, tyre machines, compressors and diagnostic equipment secure far less than they cost, because a hoist installed for your bays is worth a fraction of that to anybody else. 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 equipment carries its own, usually a chattel mortgage. An in-ground hoist and its pit are part of the building and are read differently to a bolt-down hoist. Splitting them keeps the property loan clean, usually improves the rate on it, and gets the whole workshop funded rather than half of it.

Yes, and it is the most common workshop purchase we do. You already know exactly what the bays earn, 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 rather than hindering it.

Three things do most of the work at valuation and they are easy to establish early. A three-phase power supply, because without it the equipment you can run is limited and retrofitting it is not cheap. The bay height and the roller door clearance, because they decide what you can physically get through the door and whether you could ever service trucks or vans. And the drainage and the oil and water separator, because they are part of the building and they are what a trade waste inspection looks at. None of these are obstacles. They are just cheaper to know about at the offer stage than at settlement.

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. A fleet, warranty, insurer or dealership contract is worth naming in the submission because it is contracted income a credit team can rely on rather than passing trade. Where the workshop 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 mechanics 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. An industrial workshop sits 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 workshop 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 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 workshop 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.

Then there is no property for a lender to mortgage, and it becomes a different kind of loan. You are buying goodwill, equipment, tooling and parts stock, along with the right to occupy under a lease, so the funding comes from your cash flow, from security you already hold, and from equipment finance over the plant. The loan term is also capped by the years left on the lease, so the more time your lease has to run, the longer the loan can be. We can arrange this, and we will tell you plainly which parts of it are fundable before you spend money on due diligence.

Often, yes. A decline usually means the workshop went to a lender whose appetite did not match it, not that the workshop 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 raised at valuation rather than dealt with at the start. Both are fixable, and the second one is a great deal easier to fix before it happens. 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, and at least one lists contaminated land as an unacceptable security outright. A specialist broker knows which lenders are genuinely writing workshops this quarter and how each one reads a site with a history. Presenting a workshop 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 workshop is located, we can arrange your finance.

Although our main speciality is property loans for business owners, we also assist with workshop equipment finance and working capital for mechanical workshops. On asset finance, that covers hoists, wheel alignment rigs, tyre machines, compressors, diagnostic scan tools, waste oil systems, tow trucks and service vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry parts 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 shed will actually value at, how the environmental question is handled, and the deposit you will genuinely need, before you commit to anything.