Refinance your food production 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 production refinance the work is in the licensing and the contracts. The building values as standard commercial security, and what decides the file is whether the site is registered for what the floor now makes and how the supply agreements are presented. We confirm the position, 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 production kitchen or a facility with several lines and cold chain. 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 a purpose-built building and how much comfort it wants on the licensing. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are genuinely writing production facilities 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. The building 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.

That is worth confirming rather than assuming, and it is a quick check. A food production premises is registered or licensed with the local council or the state food authority, and the classification follows what you produce and who you supply. A building registered for one food activity is not automatically registered for another, and a premises registered for retail sale is not automatically registered for wholesale supply. Nothing about the building changed when your range did, so the paperwork does not update itself. Where a change is needed we establish the cost and the timing before the file is lodged.

It matters in two ways, and both are worth getting in front of. The first is the registration, because supplying wholesale is read as a different activity to selling at retail and the premises has to be classified for it. The second is the income, and this one is in your favour. Wholesale supply under an agreement is contracted volume, which reads very differently to orders in a credit assessment. We name the agreements in the submission with their terms and volumes attached.

It is a question a credit team will ask, so it is far better answered than left hanging. A single large agreement is the strongest evidence of durable income a producer holds, and it is also concentration. What settles it is context: the term left on the agreement, how long the relationship has run, what the rest of the book looks like and what capacity the floor has beyond that customer. We put all of it forward together rather than letting the concentration be the only thing a lender sees.

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 new production room, a segregated line, a washdown and drainage upgrade, an extraction or arrestor upgrade or a working capital buffer are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset, which is what keeps it straightforward.

It can, so check it at the same time as the registration. The consent from the water authority, the discharge agreement and the sizing of the grease arrestor were set against the volume and the type of discharge at the time they were arranged. A new line, a different wash process or a change of product can move any of them, and the charge is an ongoing cost line that belongs in the serviceability numbers we present. The arrestor itself is part of the building, so it sits inside the valuation rather than outside it.

A large part of it should be. Coved skirting, food-grade panel, graded and sealed floors, drainage and trapped gullies, wash-down surfaces, the grease arrestor and the extraction canopy with its ductwork are built into the fabric of the building, so they form part of the property being valued. Free-standing plant is the other side of the line and belongs on its own facility. What matters at a refinance is that the valuer is briefed on what has been installed since settlement rather than left to notice it.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on purpose-built food buildings the policies differ sharply. The building is standard commercial security, so it is written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on specialised fitout, 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.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file. Where an SMSF, a change of registration or several sites 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 site we want the current food registration or licence, the trade waste consent, your food safety audit reports and details of the fitout done since you bought. Supply agreements are worth putting forward too, because contracted volume reads very differently to orders.

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 production facility 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 to build a new production room. 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. 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 production facility 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 ovens, provers, mixers and dough equipment, blast chillers and cool rooms, packaging and filling lines, pallet wrappers, forklifts, and delivery and refrigerated vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry ingredient and packaging stock 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 production facility loan is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the floor grows 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 building is likely to value at now, whether the registration still describes what you make, 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.