Transport and logistics depot 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. A transport depot turns on the yard, hardstand and covenants, so it goes to lenders who genuinely understand industrial and logistics property and will price those on their merits. Once the depot settles, we stay across the deal as the business expands its footprint and the fleet and operation grow. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

No. A depot 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. Being in the standard bucket is why a depot freehold borrows further than the number many operators are first quoted. The one thing that does move the number is the balance of open yard to buildings on the site, and that is worth understanding before you make an offer rather than at the valuation.

A depot gears on the balance of building to yard: the building portion to around 80%, and open hardstand and vacant industrial land to around 65%. Additional security can lift a cross-collateralised structure to 100% of the price. Where your site sits depends on the mix, so talk to us.

Because industrial units, warehouses and factories typically gear to around 80%, while vacant industrial land and hardstand gear to around 65%. A building is easier to value on comparable sales and easier to re-let, so it carries the higher figure. Open hardstand carries the lower one. A depot is a spectrum between the two. A warehouse with a yard behind it sits near the top of it. A few demountables on five acres of hardstand sits near the bottom. The ratio of improvements to land is what moves the number, and it moves it by fifteen points. This is not a problem and it is not a reason to avoid a yard-heavy site. It simply changes the cash you bring to settlement, and knowing it at the offer stage is worth real money. We tell you where your site sits on that spectrum before you commit to a price.

Yes, and it is the most common depot purchase we do. You already know the site holds your fleet, you know how the trucks move through it, and the lender can see a proven operator on the premises. The rent you stop paying to your landlord is added back when a lender tests whether you can service the loan, and the lease you are currently on is good evidence of what the site is worth to a tenant, which helps the valuation rather than hindering it.

Four things do most of the work and they are all cheaper to establish early. The pavement, because heavy-duty hardstand rated for laden trucks is what a depot needs and a car park slab is not, and hardstand that fails under a loaded B-double is a real cost to repair. The turning circles and the B-double or semi access, including the swept path in from the street, because a site a semi cannot enter is not a depot. The access and egress onto the road network, and whether the council permits the movements you need. And the ratio of building to open yard, because that is what decides how far the site gears. None of these are obstacles. They are simply better known at the offer stage than at the valuation, and we work through them with you.

They matter enormously, particularly for a depot that runs nights. A depot needs zoning and a consent that permit the use and the vehicle movements, and many consents carry hours-of-operation conditions that restrict when trucks can enter and leave. If your runs start at four in the morning, a consent that permits movements from seven changes what the site is worth to you. General and light industrial zonings are the usual home for a depot, and the permitted use and the conditions on the consent are checked as part of the finance rather than left to be discovered. We raise it before you offer.

Usually not, but it has to be established rather than assumed. A wash bay, an on-site diesel tank and the oil and water separator are ordinary parts of running a fleet, and they bring an environmental question with them. 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, and at least one lender lists contaminated land as an unacceptable security outright. We get ahead of this at the front of the deal rather than letting it surface at valuation. A clean report is a genuine asset at settlement, at refinance and at resale.

Separately from the property, and that is deliberate. Prime movers, rigid trucks, trailers, forklifts, reach stackers and yard plant are funded on their own facility, usually a chattel mortgage, rather than rolled into the property loan. A valuer prices the land and the buildings on it, not the fleet parked on the hardstand, so financing them together helps nobody. Splitting them keeps the property facility clean, usually improves the rate on it, and matches the term to the life of each asset, which is a very different number for a trailer than for a depot.

Less than you would think, and that works in your favour. A freight or logistics depot, a container storage yard, a truck depot, a bus or coach depot, a taxi or rideshare depot, an RV or campervan hire depot and a courier depot are all read as industrial security, and all of them are valued on comparable sales and achievable rent. What differs between them is the balance of building to yard and the services on the site. A bus depot usually carries a substantial workshop, so it sits high on the improvements side. A container yard is mostly hardstand, so it sits lower and the cash you bring is larger. An RV or campervan depot needs turnaround space, wash facilities and secure parking, and a courier depot needs dock height and van circulation more than it needs B-double access. We match the site to the lenders who read it correctly.

Two to three years of business financial statements and tax returns, BAS lodgements, and a clear picture of where the revenue comes from. Lenders want to see that the fleet is working and that the work is repeatable. A contracted freight, supermarket, council, school or linehaul arrangement is worth naming in the submission because it is contracted income rather than spot work. Where the depot 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 transport 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. An industrial depot 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 depot 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 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 depot 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 depot 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 depot went to a lender whose appetite did not match it, not that the depot is unfundable. The two common causes are a credit team pricing a yard-heavy site against a warehouse LVR and then pulling the offer at valuation, and a wash bay or refuelling question raised late rather than dealt with at the start. Both are fixable, and both are a great deal easier to handle before they happen. Non-bank and specialist lenders assess industrial 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. On a depot the spread between lenders is unusually wide, because the same site can be read as an industrial building with a yard or as hardstand with a shed on it, and those two readings are fifteen points apart. The majors do not publish an owner-occupier commercial LVR at all. Several non-banks publish 80% on an industrial building and 65% on hardstand, and at least one lists contaminated land as an unacceptable security outright. A specialist broker knows which lenders are genuinely writing depots this quarter and how each one reads a yard. Presenting a depot 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 depot is located, we can arrange your finance.

Although our main speciality is property loans for business owners, we also assist with truck and fleet finance and working capital for transport operators. On asset finance, that covers prime movers, rigid trucks, trailers, forklifts, reach stackers, yard plant, wash bay equipment and workshop gear. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to cover fuel and tyres, to carry the gap between invoicing and payment, 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 transport operators and industrial owner-occupiers seeking finance from $100,000 upwards, and buying the depot you already run from is very often a first commercial purchase, so it is well within our wheelhouse. We will walk you through where your site sits between building and yard, how the wash bay question is handled, and the deposit you will genuinely need, before you commit to anything.