Refinance your light industrial unit commercial 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 strata unit refinance the work is in the scheme. The unit is standard commercial security and easy to value, and what slows a file is the body corporate paperwork, which as an owner you already hold. We assemble it, 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 one unit you want repriced or two adjoining lots 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 appetite for small strata units varies more between lenders than the security itself justifies. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are writing your size of unit 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.

Around 80% of the current value. A strata industrial unit 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.

Because the lender is taking security over a lot inside a scheme, so it reads the scheme as well as the unit. The levies, the sinking fund balance, the insurance and anything raised in the minutes all come into the assessment. As an owner you hold every one of those documents, which means the slowest documents are ones you can hand over on day one.

No, and it is better raised than found. A special levy tells a lender the scheme is dealing with something rather than deferring it, and a lender reads the amount, the timing and what it is for. We put it forward with the context and the minutes attached, which is a very different file to one where a strata search turns it up in the middle of an assessment.

Some of it will. What is built into the unit tends to form part of the property and support the valuation, and a three-phase upgrade is worth naming because it widens who can occupy the unit. Free-standing machinery is a chattel and is not included in a mortgage valuation, so it belongs on its own facility. The other half of the question is approvals, because work touching common property or the structure needs the consent of the body corporate.

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 deposit on the unit next door, a fitout, new machinery or a working capital buffer are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset, which is what keeps it straightforward.

Often yes, and a lender will usually take security over both lots. They remain two lots on the strata plan even where you open the wall between them, and that opening affects common property so it needs the approval of the body corporate. We run the refinance and the purchase together, because the order they settle in decides what the second lender sees.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on small strata units in particular the policies differ sharply. The unit is standard commercial security, so it is written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on size, LVR and 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.

Often yes, and it is one of the more useful things a refinance does. The caution is that not everything belongs on the unit. Machinery sits better on asset finance against the machine, because the term should match its working life, and a facility that carries materials and wages is there to revolve. We map what belongs where and consolidate what genuinely benefits from long-term property security.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file, and often at the shorter end where the scheme documents are ready at the start. Where two lots or an SMSF 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 equipment schedules. For the scheme we want the levy notices, the most recent financial statements of the owners corporation, the insurance certificate and the recent minutes. If the unit is leased to your operating company we also need that lease.

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 unit used wholly in a business qualifies, whether your own company occupies it or a tenant does. It has to stay the same single property, and a unit and the one next door count as two properties even where they are worked as one workshop. 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. 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 unit 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 strata industrial unit 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 unit is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the unit, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers CNC routers and edgebanders, presses and brakes, welding and fabrication plant, dust extraction, compressors, forklifts and work vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry materials and wages between progress claims, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it describes most owners we speak to, because a strata unit is where a lot of trades buy their first property. The facility is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the business grows into the space. 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 unit is likely to value at now, how your scheme reads, 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.