Refinance your cold storage 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 a cold store refinance the work is in the plant. The building is standard commercial security and straightforward to value, and what decides the file is where the refrigeration sits on its cycle and how that is presented. We get the plant position documented, place the file, 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 chilled unit or a multi-zone facility with racking and dock levellers. 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 in this niche the spread comes down to how a credit team reads the plant. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are genuinely comfortable with the age of your refrigeration right now, 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 cold store is standard commercial security, grouped with warehouses, shops and offices rather than with specialised assets. The figure follows a fresh valuation, not the price you originally paid.

Yes. No Australian lender names cold storage, a refrigerated warehouse or temperature-controlled premises as a specialised, restricted or excluded security in its published policy. It sits in the standard commercial bucket that lenders describe as shops, offices and warehouses, published policy runs to 80% for industrial units, warehouses and factories, and light industrial and warehouses sit among the acceptable commercial security a lender will name. Where you are told refrigeration means lower gearing, that is an assumption about your building rather than a policy being quoted. Correct it at a refinance as much as at a purchase.

Fund it on its own facility, and refinance the property alongside it rather than through it. Plant should run to the working life of plant, so a pack, condensers and evaporators go on equipment finance or a chattel mortgage over a term that matches them, while the property loan stays on property terms. Where the equity supports it, the refinance can release funds toward the program. What we do not do is capitalise a pack into a 25 year mortgage, because that outlasts the equipment by a long way.

It does, and we say so rather than assume a lender will work it out. Power is the largest running cost in a cold store, so a modern pack lowers the biggest line in the accounts. What makes it worth raising is timing: accounts describe the year that has finished, so the saving does not appear in the financials a lender reads until well after the plant is installed. We put the program, the specification and the projected saving into the submission so the file reflects the facility you are running rather than the one you were running.

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. A plant program, a new chamber, re-cladding panel, an upgrade to the incoming supply or a working capital buffer are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset, which is what keeps it straightforward.

That depends on the incoming supply before it depends on anything else. The supply sets what the site can ever run, so a new chamber, a bigger pack or a move from chilled to frozen space all stop at it, and lifting it is neither quick nor cheap. It is also worth knowing that a supply upgrade is work to the property rather than equipment, so it belongs on the property facility and not on a plant one. We confirm the capacity before the chamber is designed rather than after it is priced.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on cold storage the policies differ sharply because lenders read plant condition differently. The building is standard commercial security, so it is written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on plant age, on LVR and on 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.

They are not usually a published credit condition, but they are useful evidence and we put them forward. A cold store storing food holds the relevant food safety registration and, in most cases, an accredited programme built on HACCP principles with the audits to match. A clean audit history tells a credit team the operation is well run, which matters more at a refinance than at a purchase because the operation being assessed is yours. Your food safety auditor and your local regulator will confirm exactly what applies to your facility.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file. Where an SMSF, a plant condition assessment or several facilities are involved it takes longer. 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 schedules for the plant and equipment facilities. For the facility we want your power bills, any plant condition or service history on the refrigeration, the food safety audit reports, and details of works done since you bought. Storage contracts are worth putting forward too, because contracted volume reads very differently to spot pallets.

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. Break costs are an economic cost, so they are calculated on the day and vary with how much fixed term is left. 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 cold store trading wholly as a business qualifies, whether your own company occupies it or a tenant does. It has to stay the same single property. 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, and borrowed money cannot fund an improvement, which means the arrangement cannot pay for a new chamber or a supply upgrade. 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 facility 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 a cold store 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 facility is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the facility, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers refrigeration plant and compressor packs, racking, dock levellers, materials handling equipment, forklifts and refrigerated vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry stock through a seasonal peak and to cover wages, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it is more common than you would think, because a cold store loan is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the chambers fill. 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 facility is likely to value at now, where your plant sits on its cycle, 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.