Refinance your motel 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 leasehold motel the first useful thing we can tell you is how many years your lease will actually let you borrow over, and to go and fix that before we approach anyone rather than after somebody says no. On a freehold we get the residence assessed inside the going concern where it belongs. 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 room furniture and fittings funded separately alongside it. On a leasehold motel the practical limit is often set by the remaining lease rather than by the value or the trade.

Because most major banks rarely fund a leasehold motel at all, so going direct to one can produce a no that says nothing about whether the business is fundable. We run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are actively writing motels on your side of the freehold and leasehold split, 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.

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 motel is rarely funded by a major bank and sits at 40% to 50% with a non-bank, with the term capped by the years left on the lease. Hospitality gears below standard commercial property, so a deposit near 35% to 45% is the normal shape of this market.

It means about ten years of loan term at most, because a lender will not write a facility that runs past the lease. The number falls by one every year, and the effect compounds: a shorter term means a higher repayment against the same debt, which tightens the servicing at exactly the moment the lease itself is making lenders more cautious. This is the most useful thing to establish before anything else on a leasehold motel, and it is why we ask about the lease before we ask about the trade.

Almost always, and the timing is the whole point. A freeholder collecting rent from a competent operator generally prefers to keep them, and an extension or a further option costs them very little while adding real years to what you can borrow against. Ask while the lease still has a comfortable run and neither side is under pressure. Ask after a lender has told you the term is too short and the freeholder knows precisely how much you need it. We work out the term your file actually needs so the conversation happens once.

On a freehold going concern it sits inside the going concern and forms part of the security, valued within the whole rather than as a separate house on its own title. Where it goes wrong is a valuer or a lender treating it as residential security bolted onto a commercial loan, which produces a worse answer in both directions. We make sure the valuation instruction is right before it goes out rather than arguing with the report afterwards.

On its trade, by a specialist motel valuer who capitalises the earnings rather than measuring the building. Room revenue, occupancy and the rate you can hold are the inputs, and the residence, the reception and the units are all inside that single figure on a freehold going concern. A narrow regional buyer pool pulls the number down independently of how well the motel trades, which is worth knowing before the valuer attends.

No, but it should be addressed directly rather than left for a credit team to discover. A motel earns from where it sits, so a changed traffic pattern is a real question. What answers it is evidence: where the room nights actually come from now, how that has moved over the years you have held the motel, and how spread the corporate, contractor and tourist sources are. A base built on several sources reads very differently to one that depended on traffic alone.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. It is also one of the more intricate refinances in commercial finance, and on a motel there is one question to settle before any of the others. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and a trading motel qualifies, but a property with a private residence attached to the same title generally does not, and a motel is exactly the asset where that arises. Settle it before anything is committed. Beyond that, it has to stay the same single property, and the refinance 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 room refurbishment 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 operating entity leases the property 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 motel 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.

Usually, so do it that way rather than partway through. A tired room loses rate before it loses occupancy, so the work is maintenance of the income rather than discretionary spending. The catch on a motel is that you generally cannot close: rooms out of service are rooms not sold, and on a twenty-unit property taking four down is a fifth of the income gone while the cost is going out. We size the release against the full program, stage it around the quieter part of the year, and set an interest only period across the window.

Often not, and on a motel it is frequently the least informative no in commercial finance. Most major banks rarely write leasehold motels at all, so a decline can reflect that policy rather than anything about your business. On a freehold, a decline more often traces to a valuation instruction that treated the residence as a separate house, or to a term the lease could not support. 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 motel valuation takes longer to commission than a standard commercial one, a leasehold file takes longer where a lease extension is being negotiated alongside it, 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 for the operating entity, monthly occupancy and average room rate, a breakdown of room nights by source, the lease with every extension and option where the motel is leasehold, 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 motel valuation costs more than a standard commercial one, and a lease extension carries its own legal cost, which is usually money very well spent. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Most of the time, no. Where a lease position has to be sorted out before the file can go to a lender, 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. Motels are largely a regional asset and we finance them across the country, wherever yours is.

Beyond refinancing the property, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers room furniture and fittings, commercial laundry, pool plant, reception and booking technology and signage. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts and lines of credit sized to the off-peak trough rather than the average month, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.