Refinance your convenience store property

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 convenience refinance the premises are the straightforward part. What a credit team spends its time on is the wage line, because extended hours are how the store earns and also what it pays for. We put the hours, the roster and the takings behind them in front of the lender together, 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 corner store or several sites held 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 in convenience two things differ widely between lenders: how a heavy wage line is read against round-the-clock takings, and whether the lender will look at a fuel site at all. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are genuinely writing convenience 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.

For a store with no fuel on the site, 75% to 80% of the current value as standard commercial security. A site that sells fuel is assessed as a specialised asset and gears lower. Either way the figure follows a fresh valuation rather than the price you paid.

As the engine of the business rather than a problem, provided it is presented properly. Extended hours are how a convenience store makes its money and they are also what it pays for, because the overnight and weekend roster carries penalty rates. The wage line on its own looks heavy. Set beside the takings those hours actually produce it reads completely differently, and that is how we put it in the submission rather than leaving a credit team to draw its own conclusion from a single line in a profit and loss.

Your own trading data, hour by hour. A purchase file argues the roster from a vendor profit and loss in aggregate, about hours somebody else set. As an owner you have years of point-of-sale data: what the overnight block takes against what it costs to staff, how the mix moves through the week, which hours carry themselves and which are there to keep the site open. That is the single biggest difference between the two files, and it is the reason a refinance can be a materially better conversation than the purchase was.

It does, so raise it rather than leave it inside an average. The hours are a decision about a building you own, not a fixed feature of it, and changing them moves the wage line and the takings together. If you have extended into overnight trading, the takings that justify the roster need to be shown next to it. If you have trimmed hours that were not carrying themselves, that is a stronger set of accounts and worth pointing at. Either way the facility should be structured around the store you run now.

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 refit at franchise renewal, new refrigeration or coffee equipment, a forecourt or signage change, the deposit on a second store or a working capital buffer are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset, which is what keeps it straightforward.

Yes, and it is one of the more common reasons a convenience owner refinances, because the work usually arrives as a condition of renewal rather than a choice. The property is where that money is cheapest. What makes it particular here is that a store earning around the clock cannot shut for a fortnight, so the works are staged and the facility is drawn against progress invoices to match. Fridges, coffee equipment, shelving and point-of-sale go on their own equipment facility rather than into the mortgage.

It does. A lender will not write a loan term that runs past your right to trade, so the years remaining on the agreement, including any options you can exercise, set the outer limit alongside the lender's own maximum. That is worth planning around rather than discovering, because refinancing shortly before a renewal and shortly after it are two different conversations. We look at the agreement, the lease and the facility expiry together and work out which order they should happen in.

It changes the whole shape of it. A store with no fuel on the site is standard commercial security and gears accordingly. A site with fuel is assessed as a specialised asset because of the tanks and the obligations that come with them, it gears lower, and fewer lenders will take it as security, with the list narrowing again inside a self-managed super fund. Both are fundable and we arrange both. They are simply two different pieces of work, and we settle which one you own before anything else is priced.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on convenience the policies differ sharply. Where the site has no fuel the premises are standard commercial security, written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on retail size, on LVR and on how they read a wage line. Where the answer was about servicing rather than security, presenting the hours against the takings is often what changes it. 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. Where an SMSF, a fuel site or a franchise renewal sits alongside it, allow longer. We give you a realistic timeline at the start so you can plan the expiry and the renewal date around it.

The existing loan statements, two to three years of financial statements and tax returns for the store, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, a statement of assets and liabilities, and the schedules for the equipment and fitout facilities. For this niche the useful extras are point-of-sale reports broken down by hour and by category, the roster, and the franchise agreement with any renewal options, because those three explain the wage line better than any summary can.

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. Retail premises sit comfortably inside a fund, and this is also one of the more intricate refinances in commercial finance, where the detail decides whether it works. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property. A shop trading wholly as a business qualifies, and it does not matter whether you or a tenant runs it, while a shop with a flat above it on the same title generally does not. 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 refit. The lender list narrows sharply where the site sells fuel. 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 store 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. Reassign the holding trust to the incoming lender on the same single property, 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 convenience 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 store is located, we can arrange your finance.

Yes, and it is more common than you would think, because the loan is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the store trades around it. 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 premises are likely to value at now, how your hours and wage line will read, 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.