Professional services office property finance

Yes, and more often than firms expect. A lender can advance up to 100% of the purchase price for your office when you add extra security, usually your home or another commercial property, set up as a cross-collateralised facility. The exact structure depends on your file, so talk to us and we will map it.

Professional office finance is a commercial mortgage used to buy premises for a professional services firm, from legal and accounting practices to advisory and multi-tenancy suites. LVR and terms depend on the property type, your entity structure and how the office will be used. Ardent Capital Group is a Sydney-based finance brokerage helping professional firms buy their premises across Australia.

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 owner-occupied office reads on its own terms rather than being lumped in with a passive investment building, so we place it with lenders who read owner-occupiers on how they trade and help you time the move around your lease. Beyond settlement we keep working with you, whether the firm grows into the floor above or a second office down the track. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

Going direct to your bank means one set of lending criteria and one answer. professional services office property is a specialist asset class, and not every lender has strong appetite for it. Income structured through service trusts, partnerships or multiple entities is frequently misread by bank credit teams who are more comfortable with straightforward PAYG borrowers. A specialist broker knows which lenders are actively writing this type of deal right now, how to present the submission correctly, and which ones to avoid. You get the lenders that suit your situation, so you are not approaching each one yourself, rather than working through a list and collecting unnecessary declines.

Professional owner-occupiers usually gear to 70% to 75%, and strong profiles reach 80%. Strata offices sit on the same basis, and an investment office let to a solid tenant also reaches around 80%. Your tenancy and borrower profile move the exact figure, so talk to us and we will map it.

For a straightforward owner-occupier purchase, most clients receive indicative credit terms within 48 hours of our first conversation. Formal approval typically follows within one to two weeks. Partnership structures, SMSF lending and multi-tenancy buildings take longer. We will give you a realistic timeline upfront so your purchase schedule stays on track.

For a full-doc application, most lenders require two to three years of business financial statements and tax returns, personal tax returns for all guarantors, and a copy of the contract of sale or expression of interest. That said, many enquiries come from self-employed owners who do not fit neatly into a standard full-doc assessment. Non-bank lenders offer alt-doc and low-doc options where income can be evidenced through an accountant's declaration, BAS statements or bank statements. These products typically carry slightly higher rates but open the door for borrowers whose paperwork understates income. We work through your income situation upfront and identify whether full-doc, alt-doc or low-doc is the right fit for you.

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 office 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 office 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 75%, 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 an office 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.

Yes. Group professional practice partnerships are a common way for multiple principals to buy premises together. Lenders review the partnership agreement, the financial position of each partner, and how the loan would be serviced if one partner exited. Some lenders are more comfortable with this structure than others. We know which lenders regularly approve professional practice partnerships and how to present the deal correctly.

In many cases, yes. Some lenders will include fitout finance as part of the commercial property loan, either at settlement or as a facility drawn down afterwards. Others require fitout funding to be handled separately through business finance. The right approach depends on the lender and the overall lending structure. We factor this in at the start so the full cost is planned for, not discovered later.

Often, yes. A decline from your bank does not necessarily mean the deal is not fundable. Banks have rigid credit policies, and professional office property does not always fit neatly within them. Non-bank lenders assess deals differently, and sometimes a structuring or presentation issue is all that stood between you and an approval. We will give you an honest assessment of what is possible before proceeding.

Most of the time, no. We are paid a commission by the lender once your loan settles, so there is no cost to you. Where your financials are complex, your structure is unusual, or the deal requires significant preparation before it can go to a lender, we may charge a small mandate fee 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 office or consulting premises are located, we can arrange your finance.

Although our main speciality is property loans for business owners, we also assist with office fit-out finance and working capital for professional services firms. On asset finance, that covers office and IT fit-out, computers and servers, office furniture, and company vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit, and debtor or invoice finance to smooth the billing-cycle gaps common to professional firms.

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 firm owners and professional practitioners seeking finance from $100,000 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.