Refinance your jewellery 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 jewellery refinance there is a third party most brokers forget: the insurer. The Jewellers Block policy has to be endorsed for the incoming lender before anything settles, and that runs on the insurer's timetable. We start it at the front of the file, place the loan, 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 strip showroom or a flagship store held alongside a stock facility. 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 two things vary widely: current appetite for retail of your size and position, and whether a lender will sit a stock facility alongside the property loan rather than treating them as separate conversations. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, present to one at a time so your credit file does not collect an enquiry for every conversation, and we run the insurance endorsement in parallel so it does not hold up settlement. 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.

75% to 80% of the current value. A showroom is standard commercial security, grouped with offices and warehouses rather than with specialised assets. The figure follows a fresh valuation, not the price you originally paid and not the stock in the cabinets.

It sets part of the timetable. A lender requires the Jewellers Block policy in place with its interest noted before it will settle, and the interest currently noted on your policy belongs to the lender you are leaving. So the policy has to be endorsed for the incoming lender, and the insurer does that on its own schedule. As an owner you start well ahead of where a buyer does: the security specification is already met, the insurer knows the premises and there is a record behind the relationship. We start the endorsement with the application rather than at settlement.

Yes, and a refinance is a sensible point to do it. An insurer specifies what it wants before it writes the risk, and cover can be refused where the security at the premises is inadequate, so the upgrade is not optional in any practical sense. It is funded as fit-out rather than capitalised into the property loan, on a term that suits equipment, and better security generally reduces the premium where it is in place, so part of it pays for itself.

Not in the way jewellers hope, and you should know that before the report comes back. A valuer prices the building and the fit-out that forms part of it on comparable sales and achievable rent, and a safe or a strongroom serves your trade rather than the next occupier. The money earns its keep by protecting the stock and by making the insurance writable, which is what lets the loan settle at all. That is exactly why we fund the security fit-out as fit-out and keep it out of the property facility.

Yes, where the current valuation supports it, and it is the most common reason a jeweller refinances. Equity released against the property is generally a cheaper way to carry stock than short-term business lending. Cash out on a commercial refinance is assessed on the purpose of the funds, so we evidence what it is for at the outset. The stock itself is never security for the property loan, so the two facilities sit side by side rather than one inside the other.

On stock turn rather than on the stock figure. A holding that sits in a cabinet for a year and a holding that sells three times over look identical on a balance sheet and are completely different propositions, so what a credit team reads is the movement. That works in your favour at a refinance, because you have several seasons of your own turn data behind you. It also matters that metal prices move the value of a holding without a single purchase being made, so the figure on its own is not the measure.

No. Inventory lending against a dealer floor is well established in Australia for motor vehicles and for machinery, and it is genuinely useful in those industries. There is no equivalent product for jewellery stock. What is real, and what we arrange, is working capital: an overdraft, a line of credit or trade finance sized to the stock you carry and the season you carry it for.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on retail the policies differ sharply. A showroom is standard commercial security, so it is written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on position, on LVR and on whether they will carry a stock facility alongside the mortgage. 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. The insurance endorsement is the item most likely to stretch it, which is why we start it with the application rather than at the end. Where an SMSF or a second store is 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 store, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, a statement of assets and liabilities, and the schedules for the fit-out and stock facilities. For this niche we also want the current Jewellers Block policy and schedule, a current stock valuation, and point-of-sale reports showing the sales mix across new jewellery, bridal, watches, repairs and custom work, because the mix and the turn are what a credit team reads.

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 security or showroom upgrade. The stock stays outside the fund and is financed separately. 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 jewellery 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.

Beyond refinancing the showroom, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers showcases, display lighting, the workshop bench and tools, point-of-sale systems, and the strongroom, safes, alarms, cameras and security glazing. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and trade finance to carry stock through the season, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it is more common than you would think, because the loan is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the stock turns over 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 showroom is likely to value at now, what the stock is costing you to carry, what the insurance endorsement will involve, what moving costs, and whether it is worth making. If it is not, we will say so and you can stay where you are.