Refinance your orthodontic practice 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 an orthodontic refinance two things are usually left on the table: a book of contracted treatment plans that never reaches the servicing assessment, and a family home still sitting in a security pool from the original purchase. We deal with both, keep the scanners and imaging on their own lines, 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 scanners, imaging and milling equipment funded separately alongside it. The new property limit follows a fresh valuation and current servicing, not what you originally borrowed.

Because the terms available to a recognised specialist are not the terms most credit teams quote by default. We run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which will fund the practice property on its own without your home behind it and which will count a contracted treatment book in the servicing, 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.

Up to 80% of the current value as a recognised specialist owner-occupier. Where you let a suite to an associate or a co-located dentist, that portion is generally assessed 5% to 15% lower. Fellowship holders and qualifying healthcare businesses can reach up to an additional 10% LVR, and published policy allows additional lending of up to $1 million for specialists above the standard 80%.

Often, and it is one of the main reasons to refinance rooms bought early in a career. Specialist healthcare lenders will fund practice property on its own, and a recognised specialist owner-occupier reaches up to 80% on the rooms without the home behind them. Whether it works on your file comes down to what the rooms value at now, how far the loan has amortised, and whether the servicing stands on the practice alone. We model all three before anything is lodged rather than discovering it during an assessment.

It should, and it is the strongest thing most orthodontic practices have that never reaches a credit team. Cases are contracted over eighteen to twenty-four months and paid by instalment, so the practice holds a set of active plans with an agreed remaining balance. What makes it usable at a refinance rather than at a purchase is the history behind it: several years of completions show the completion rate, the arrears pattern and how much of the quoted value actually arrives. Practice software reports by appointment and item, so the book has to be assembled deliberately. We do that as part of the file.

Usually, yes, because the original assessment described a chair-based practice. Aligner workflow moves a large share of the work off the chair and into scanning, planning and either a milling unit or a laboratory, so utilisation measured in chairs understates a practice running more cases through fewer appointments. The equipment has usually been through a cycle since settlement as well. We present throughput the way the practice now works and put the technology on terms matched to its life.

Because the fit-out is clinical and largely non-transferable. Orthodontic rooms are valued as consulting suites, on comparable sales and the market rent the space would achieve, and chairs, a shared imaging and sterilisation bay and the services behind them suit your practice far more than they suit the next occupier. A valuer discounts them below cost. It means the equity at a refinance comes from the market and the amortisation rather than from the works, so a release should be sized against those.

It does once you present it, and not at all if you do not. Referral flow from general dentists drives the practice and is the one thing a lender cannot secure or value, so what a credit team can actually use is its composition: how concentrated it is, how long the pattern has held, and how much of the new-case volume now comes from direct patient enquiry rather than referral. A base spread across many practices and steady over several years is a genuine strength. We present the composition rather than a single total.

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 property trading wholly as a business qualifies while one with a residence attached generally does not. 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 reconfiguration for aligner workflow 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. Your practice leases the rooms 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. Plan on the basis that the equity release above does not apply inside a fund, and up to 90% with no lenders mortgage insurance where a medical or dental fund holds the practice's own rooms. 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 specialist rooms 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.

From the rooms you already own, in most cases. A satellite day run out of a general dental practice needs portable equipment, a vehicle and some working capital, and it gives a lender nothing to take security over, so a modest release against your own premises is usually the cleanest route. The advantage is what it does to a later purchase: by the time you are buying in that catchment, the case volume is evidenced rather than forecast, which changes how the second file is assessed.

Often not. On specialist rooms a decline usually traces to a release sized against what the fit-out cost rather than what the rooms value at, or to a credit team assessing the practice on billings alone with no way to count the contracted book. Both are questions of presentation and of which lender the file sits with. 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 for a straightforward file. A file that also releases a property from the security pool takes longer, one that moves equipment lines longer again, and SMSF refinances longest of all. We give you a realistic timeline at the start so you can plan the expiry date around it.

The existing loan statements for the property and every equipment line, two to three years of financial statements and tax returns for the practice entity, your AHPRA specialist registration, a schedule of active treatment plans with balances outstanding and completion history, any lease over a let suite, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, and a statement of assets and liabilities. Where the borrower is a partnership, trust or company we also need the deed or constitution.

The costs are a valuation, legal and settlement fees, any lender establishment fee, discharge costs from each current lender, and break costs where you are leaving a fixed rate. Where a property is being released from the security pool there is further legal work on the discharge side. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Most of the time, no. Where the structure is a partnership or service trust that needs presenting, or the treatment book has to be assembled before the file can go anywhere, 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 rooms are located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the rooms, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers intraoral and 3D scanners, CBCT imaging, aligner milling units, chairs and clinical fit-out, practice software and vehicles for satellite days. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry laboratory costs, aligner supply and wages, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it describes most specialists we speak to. The facility is set at settlement and then simply runs, because every conversation since has been about chairs, scanners and cases. 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 working out what the rooms are likely to value at now, whether your home still needs to be in the security, what moving costs, and whether it is worth making. If it is not, we will say so and you can stay where you are.