Refinance your automotive or transport property loan

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. On an automotive refinance the work is in the site. The building is standard commercial security, the ground under it is what lenders differ on, and you now hold the operating records that answer it. We put those in front of the lenders that will assess the site and stay with it past drawdown. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

We refinance commercial facilities from $50K up to $30M, whether that is a single workshop you want repriced or a site and a yard you would rather hold under one structure. The new limit is set by the current valuation and by servicing, not by what you originally borrowed.

Because your bank can only tell you what your bank will do, and on an automotive site lenders differ sharply on the ground rather than on the building. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which will assess a site with an operating history at your loan size, and present to one at a time so your credit file does not collect an enquiry for every conversation. We also model the break costs, valuation and legals against what moving actually gains you, and if it does not stack up we will tell you that.

Up to 80% of the current value. A workshop is standard commercial industrial security, grouped with warehouses and factories rather than with specialised assets. Hardstand and vacant industrial land is geared to 65%, so a site that is mostly yard sits lower than one that is mostly building.

It does not stop a refinance, but it decides where the file goes. The question reaches you through the valuation rather than through published credit policy, and lenders divide: some exclude land with a contamination history outright, others assess it where the investigation work is done. On responsibility, the duty to manage contaminated land runs with the land rather than with whoever caused it, which is why your own operating records matter at a refinance. We establish which lenders will take the site before anything is lodged.

Yes, and it is a different assessment to a workshop. No Australian lender publishes an LVR for a fuel site, and several lenders exclude them by name. Underground fuel storage brings its own regime, and where the operator of an out-of-use system cannot be found the landowner can be treated as the person responsible. We place these with the lenders that genuinely write them and tell you the terms rather than a number.

It depends on whether they are built in. An in-ground hoist and its pit, a spray booth, graded and bunded floors and the compressed air reticulation are fixtures, so they form part of the real property and support the valuation. Free-standing plant is a chattel, which is not included in a mortgage valuation and is funded on its own facility instead. Knowing which is which changes both the valuation and how the borrowing should be structured.

It has to be separate. Under a floor plan arrangement the financier buys and owns the vehicles and the dealer holds them as bailee, paying out the principal as each one sells, so the stock is not yours to mortgage. It is written by the manufacturer captives and by independent financiers. At a refinance we look at the property facility and the floor plan facility together, then keep them apart.

Yes, where the current valuation supports it. Cash out on a commercial refinance is assessed on the purpose of the funds, so the lender wants to know what it is for. An extra hoist bay, a wash bay, a workshop extension, additional hardstand or a deposit on a second site are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset, which is what keeps it straightforward.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and it is not a view the whole market shares. Automotive premises are standard commercial security written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on LVR, loan size, site history and how they read self-employed income. We look at why the answer was no, then place the file where that reason is not the deciding one.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file. A site that needs investigation work takes longer, because the report has to be commissioned and read, and SMSF refinances take longer again. We give you a realistic timeline at the start so you can plan the expiry date around it.

The existing loan statements, two to three years of financial statements and tax returns for the trading entity, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, a statement of assets and liabilities, and the equipment schedules. For the site itself we want the trade waste agreement, any environmental reports, and the servicing records for bunding, interceptors or tanks. We work through the list with you at the start rather than asking for things one at a time.

Then we work with the position as it is rather than the one you hoped for. If the balance now sits above the new lender maximum, a partial repayment at settlement can bring it into range and open up the rest of the market. Where the financials do not yet show current trading, alt-doc assessment is available with several lenders. We tell you which of these applies before any application is lodged.

The costs are a valuation, legal and settlement fees, any lender establishment fee, discharge costs from your current lender, and break costs where you are leaving a fixed rate. Where site investigation work is called for that is an additional cost, and we tell you before it is ordered. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. It is also one of the more intricate refinances in commercial finance, and the detail is what decides whether it works. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and a site trading wholly as a business qualifies, whether you occupy it or a tenant does, though a site with a residence on the same title generally does not. It has to stay the same single property, and it is limited to the balance outstanding plus accrued interest, so there is no top up, no redraw and no cash out inside the fund. Borrowed money cannot be used to improve the property either, so site works are funded from the resources of the fund. The holding trust is reassigned to the incoming lender rather than dissolved, which carries a legal cost worth weighing against the gain. Your operating company leases the site back 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. SMSF lending on standard commercial security generally runs between 65% and 80%, the major banks have exited SMSF lending, and lenders want a liquidity buffer 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 an automotive site 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.

Most of the time, no. Where a refinance requires significant preparation due to its complexity, a small mandate fee may apply, and 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 site is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the site, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers hoists, wheel aligners, diagnostic equipment, compressors, spray booth plant, tow trucks, prime movers, trailers and courtesy fleets. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry parts stock and wages, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it describes most owners we speak to. The purchase facility is set up at settlement and then simply runs, while the site quietly builds the operating record that a refinance is assessed on. 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 business owners and commercial property investors with facilities from $50,000 upwards. We will start by telling you what the site is likely to value at now, what sits on your current facility, what moving costs, and whether it is worth making. If it is not, we will say so and you can stay where you are.