Orthodontist practice 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. An orthodontic practice carries healthcare premises and the steady income behind a specialist dental business, and with sixty-plus lenders on our panel we know which of them read those figures the way the practice trades. Our team stays with you as the practice and its patient base grow. Our Sydney commercial property page covers the same ground for buyers in that market. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

Going direct to one bank gives you a single credit policy and a single answer. Specialist orthodontic rooms are a niche asset, and not every lender recognises orthodontists as an AHPRA specialist or understands a referral-based practice. A specialist broker knows which lenders extend the medical package to specialist dentists, where the sharper pricing sits, and how to present a submission that gets approved. You reach the right lenders for your situation, so you are not enquiring lender by lender, rather than collecting declines across a list.

Orthodontic premises funding runs from $50K up to $30M, covering a single-site practice through to several rooms held under one entity. Imaging, chairs and laboratory space can be considered as part of the same structure.

As a recognised AHPRA specialist, you can typically borrow up to 80% of your rooms' value as an owner-occupier, and specialist healthcare lenders will fund up to 100% on the practice property alone, without taking your home. Investment rooms usually sit 5% to 15% lower, and an SMSF purchase caps at 65% to 75%. The exact figure depends on your file, so talk to us.

For a straightforward owner-occupier purchase of your rooms, most clients receive indicative credit terms within 48 hours of our first conversation, with formal approval commonly following in one to two weeks. A bank purchase usually settles in about three to six weeks, and a non-bank two to four weeks. Service-trust, partnership and SMSF structures take longer because there are more moving parts to assess. We give you a realistic timeline upfront so your contract dates hold.

For a full-doc application, most lenders want two to three years of practice financial statements and tax returns, personal tax returns for each guarantor, and the contract of sale. Where a service trust, partnership or company holds the practice, the relevant deed or constitution and its financials are also needed. Many orthodontists bill through a service entity and do not fit a standard full-doc assessment, so non-bank alt-doc and low-doc options let income be evidenced through an accountant's declaration, BAS or bank statements. These carry slightly higher rates but open the door where paperwork understates real income. We work through your income situation upfront to identify the best approach.

Owner-occupier finance applies when your own orthodontic practice occupies the rooms. Lenders assess your practice billings and AHPRA specialist standing alongside the property and lend up to 80%. Investment finance applies when you buy specialist rooms to lease to other practitioners, so the assessment turns on the rent, lease term and tenant quality. Investment LVRs are typically 5% to 15% lower, and short leases or vacancy are harder to fund. Many orthodontists occupy one suite and lease others, which we present as a split.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. 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 rooms 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 property trading wholly as a business generally qualifies, a property with a residence attached generally does not. Your practice leases the rooms back from the fund, in writing, at market rent supported by an independent appraisal, and the rent has to actually be paid. SMSF lending caps well below a standard purchase, so the fund provides its own deposit and the full-price funding available outside super does not apply here. Cross-collateralisation is not available inside super either. Through a specialist healthcare lender your fund can borrow up to 90% of the purchase price for owner-occupied practice premises, and a non-bank commercial lender publishes up to 80% on loans from $100,000 to $10 million with no liquidity or net asset requirement on the fund. Most lenders will still want cash left in the fund after settlement. We know this sounds complicated, and we can assist to make things clearer. Reach out to our team and we will guide you through the entire process. We structure the finance, tell you which lenders will take specialist rooms 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. Our SMSF medical and health premises page covers how a fund buys practice premises and what changes from one practice type to the next.

Yes. An orthodontic fit-out and its technology can rival the price of the rooms, so we plan the funding from the start. The building itself sits on the commercial property loan, while higher-value kit like intraoral and 3D scanners, CBCT imaging, treatment chairs, sterilisation and aligner milling is usually funded separately on chattel mortgage or equipment finance, keeping depreciating assets off the property security. Some lenders will instead capitalise part of the fit-out into the property loan or release it through a progress-draw facility against builder invoices. We map which route costs less over the life of the loan for your build.

Valuers assess the premises as standard commercial property, then treat the specialist fit-out conservatively. Non-transferable clinical improvements, from surgery plumbing to a lead-lined imaging area, are usually valued below their build cost because a future buyer may not use them. That can step the assessed value below what you spent, so lenders size the loan on the valuation rather than your invoices. Practice goodwill is funded separately from the property on its own terms. We flag this early so your deposit and structure account for it.

Yes. Specialist practices rarely sit in a single name. A partnership, unit trust or service trust spreads ownership and can hold the rooms while practitioners bill through a shared entity, but it means the lender underwrites several people and a deed at once. The work is showing how income flows through the structure and that the loan still services if a principal exits. Lenders will want all-in guarantees from each partner or corporate trustee director. We present the structure so it supports the application rather than stalling it.

Often, yes. A decline from one bank rarely means the purchase cannot be funded. Banks apply rigid credit policies, and specialist rooms with a heavy clinical fit-out do not always fit them. Non-bank lenders and specialist medical financiers assess these differently, and sometimes a structuring or presentation issue is all that stood between you and an approval. We give you an objective assessment of what is achievable before we proceed.

Yes, it is possible, subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval from our lender panel. We can help you access funding for up to 100% of the purchase price of an existing orthodontic practice, secured on the goodwill and equipment of that practice rather than your home or other property. The loan amortises over 15 years and can be structured interest only for up to three years. The goodwill is not separately valued, which removes one of the slower steps in an acquisition, and it matters here because an active course-of-treatment list carries much of the value in an orthodontic practice, and it transfers with the practice rather than with the building.

Yes, it is possible, subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval from our lender panel. We can help you access up to 100% of the amount you need to buy into an existing partnership, or to increase your share in a practice you already part-own. Security is taken over your share of the partnership alone, so the existing partners and their own arrangements stay as they are. That matters on a buy-in, because the version that stalls is the one where every partner has to re-document their position before you can settle.

Life and income protection cover, sufficient to cover any loan balance secured by goodwill. Goodwill is intangible and depends on you continuing to practise, so a lender funding it requires that cover in place before settlement. We raise it in the first conversation so it is organised early, rather than surfacing as a condition late in the process when your settlement date is already fixed.

On earnings, not on a separate goodwill valuation. Specialist healthcare lenders assess a practice on a combination of EBITDA and gross practice revenue, and one does not require a valuation of the goodwill at all. Where the lending is against practice earnings rather than the property, published policy allows up to 3 times EBITDA for dental and orthodontic practices, or 70% of an external valuation. That earnings-based lending is aimed at larger practices: the lender sets a minimum commercial debt of $1 million and minimum revenue of $2.5 million, and looks for a large or multi-site practice in a metropolitan location. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

It can. Up to an additional 10% LVR is published for medical professionals holding a fellowship from an Australian Medical College, and for healthcare businesses meeting a lender's health goodwill guidelines, where the lending is against commercial owner-occupied or residential property. On top of the standard 80% LVR for owner-occupied commercial property, published policy allows additional lending of up to $1 million for medical specialists and surgeons and up to $250,000 for general practitioners, assessed on net taxable income from personal exertion. Tell us about your qualifications in the first conversation, because it changes which lender the file suits. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

Up to 10 years. Terms on practice premises run to 30 years, with interest only available for up to a decade of that, and fixed, variable and line of credit options inside the same structure. A long interest only window is worth structuring for where you are carrying a chair and imaging fit-out at the same time as the purchase. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

Most of the time, no. Where your financials are complex, your structure is unusual, or the purchase requires significant preparation before it can go to a lender, a small mandate fee may apply depending on the complexity. We will always be upfront about this before any 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 orthodontic practice rooms are located, we can arrange your finance.

Although our main speciality is property loans for business owners, we also assist with orthodontic equipment finance and working capital for orthodontists. On asset finance, that covers intraoral and 3D scanners, CBCT imaging, treatment chairs, sterilisation plant and aligner milling. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to cover staff wages, lab and aligner costs, marketing and referral, and the cost of opening or expanding a practice. We also arrange home loans. Doctors and dentists borrow to 95% with the mortgage insurance premium waived and no minimum income: see home loans for dentists. Where you are fitting out rather than buying, we also arrange orthodontic surgery fitout finance.

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 established orthodontists and specialist practice owners seeking finance from $50,000 upwards for their company, so a first commercial loan is well within our wheelhouse. Smaller sole-trader and consumer-style ABN lending sits outside our field.

No. Arranging finance and advising on financial products are two different disciplines, and we do the first. What we bring is the credit analysis lenders require, the structuring of the facility, and the strategy for putting your application in front of lenders whose appetite matches it.

Because we act as a credit representative under an Australian Credit Licence, we do not give financial product, superannuation, taxation or legal advice, and nothing we provide should be taken as such. Where your circumstances need that input, we are happy to work with your accountant, financial adviser and solicitor to understand the full picture before anything is submitted.

The information on this page is general in nature and does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs.