Refinance your function venue 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 venue the forward book is the obvious thing to show and the least persuasive on its own. What makes it count is the conversion history behind it, which only a venue with years of trading can produce. We build that, treat the held deposits properly, and stay with the file past drawdown. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

We refinance commercial facilities from $50K up to $30M on the property side, with the kitchen, audio visual and furniture funded separately alongside it. The new limit follows a fresh trade-based valuation and current servicing, not what you originally borrowed.

Because how a lender treats the forward book changes the answer more than the rate does, and a single bank shows you one treatment. Major banks hold deposits strictly as a liability and give the book little weight without history; non-banks give contracted forward bookings weight. We run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which will read your book properly, and present to one at a time so your credit file does not collect an enquiry for every conversation.

50% to 65% of the current value on a freehold going concern, with the banks generally at 50% to 60% and non-banks reaching 65%. A leasehold going concern is rarely funded by a bank and sits at 40% to 50% elsewhere. A purpose-built reception centre has a limited alternative-use market, which is priced into the figure.

With a conversion rate behind it, not as a gross total. Eighteen months of dates and contracted minimums proves very little on its own, because a credit team has no way to know how much of it will happen. What changes that is history: across several years, how many booked events ran, how many moved date and stayed, how many were lost, and what average spend came to against the contracted minimum. That lets the book be discounted sensibly, which is the difference between a lender giving it weight and giving it none.

Because that is what they are. Money taken against events that have not happened belongs to the people who paid it until the event runs, so a venue can be holding a substantial balance and be no better off for it. Major banks treat held deposits strictly as a liability. Treat them that way yourself going into a refinance, because an application that counts them as income produces a serviceability figure wrong in your favour, and that surfaces mid-assessment and costs credibility on everything else.

It is the risk a lender prices on this asset, and it concentrates twice: in one type of event, and in the weekends of a few months. It is a good business and a narrow one, and presenting a narrow book as a diversified one does not survive a credit team that has seen a few. The stronger move is to show what else the venue does. Corporate functions, conferences and training fill weekdays that otherwise earn nothing, and christenings, milestone events and community bookings spread the year. Break that trade out rather than folding it into a total.

The setting more than the building. A purpose-built reception centre converts poorly to any other use, so valuers price a limited alternative-use market into the figure, and the banquet kitchen and ballroom do not help the way a fit-out might elsewhere. What carries value is waterfront, a garden, a vineyard outlook or grounds people want photographs in, because that is a large part of why the venue books at all and a competitor cannot reproduce it. Make it explicit rather than assuming a valuer weighs it.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. It is also one of the more intricate refinances in commercial finance, and it is a natural fit on this asset because the property and the events business are so often already in separate entities. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and a trading venue qualifies, but where there is a residence on the same title, which is common on a rural or garden venue, that generally does not qualify and is the question to settle first. 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 fund an improvement either, so a refurbishment or a ceremony space comes 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. The events business leases the venue 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. Fund the deposit from the fund itself, since cross-collateralisation is not available in super, 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 venue 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.

By working backwards from the diary rather than from the money. The bookings were made twelve or eighteen months ago and cannot be moved, so the work has to fit a window that barely exists, and the people who booked chose the venue partly on photographs from last season. A release taken in autumn for work done in winter, sized to finish before the first booking of the season, is a very different proposition from one arranged once the carpet has given up. The servicing also has to carry a quiet period with costs going out, which is normal here rather than a problem.

Usually, and it compounds. An outdoor ceremony space, a marquee, a bridal suite or accommodation for guests lets the venue capture a whole event rather than part of one, which lifts the average spend against the contracted minimums your conversion history already tracks. That improves the numbers both the next valuation and the next booking book rest on, so doing it before a second-venue purchase rather than after is generally worth more than the timing suggests.

Often not. On a venue a decline usually traces to one of two things: a forward book presented as a gross total with nothing behind it, so the lender gave it no weight at all, or held deposits counted as income, which undermines the rest of the file once it is noticed. Both are fixable before the file goes anywhere else, and non-bank lenders give contracted forward bookings weight where banks will not. We look at how it was assessed and why the answer was no, then place it where that reason is not the deciding one.

Around three to six weeks with a major bank and two to four weeks with a non-bank lender. A specialist valuation on an event venue takes longer to commission than a standard commercial one, assembling the conversion history adds time at the front end and saves it at the back, and SMSF refinances are 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, the forward booking schedule with contracted minimums and dates, several years of conversion data showing events booked against events run and average spend achieved, the held deposit balance separated from earned revenue, a split of events by type, the liquor licence and its conditions, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, and a statement of assets and liabilities.

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. A specialist venue valuation costs more than a standard commercial one. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Most of the time, no. Where the conversion history has to be assembled before the file can go to a lender, or the property and the events business are being restructured, 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 and the regions around them, including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart. Many of the best venues are regional, and we finance them wherever they are.

Beyond refinancing the venue, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers banquet kitchens and coolrooms, audio visual, sound and lighting, furniture and table settings and marquee and outdoor structures. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts and lines of credit sized to the gap between booking and event and to peak season staffing, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.