Refinance your pharmacy 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 pharmacy refinance the work is in keeping the two halves apart. The freehold is capped where it is because the approval is not on the title, and the growth since settlement sits in the script base on the business side. We price each half where it is priced best 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, across the freehold, the business or both. The new limits are set by the current valuation on the property and by current earnings on the business, not by what you originally borrowed against either.

Because a pharmacy is two loans on two different bases and very few institutions price both well. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which have a genuine pharmacy desk and which are only writing the property half, 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 around 70% of the current value on a freehold you occupy, through the pharmacy-specialist desks. Plan the release around 70%, not the 75% to 80% a medical clinic attracts, because the PBS approval that carries most of the value is fixed to the location rather than being an asset on the title.

Because it is what lets the site dispense subsidised medicines, and it attaches to the approved location rather than to you. That gives an established site value a new one cannot replicate, and the community pharmacy location rules reinforce it by limiting how close a new approval can open to an existing one. It also explains the gearing: the approval protects the catchment, but it is not something a mortgagee could realise, so the lending against the bricks stays conservative.

On the business side rather than in the property valuation. Goodwill is calculated as a multiple of turnover or earnings, built from script volume, PBS revenue and the front-of-shop retail split, so a script base that has grown moves that figure directly. The freehold is still valued as commercial property with weight on the location. It is the main reason we review both facilities together even though they stay separate.

Usually not, and this is where a pharmacy differs from most practices. The freehold is the smaller of the two values and it is capped at around 70%, so it cannot absorb much goodwill even when the equity looks available on paper. Pushing it across also moves the debt from a lender that prices a script base properly to one that does not. We model both and tell you plainly where consolidating would cost you.

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 dispensary automation upgrade, a front-of-shop refit, a professional services room or the deposit on a second approval are all ordinary purposes. We evidence them with quotes and a timeline.

It is the normal sequence and it is not a complication, though it does mean the two facilities were written years apart on different terms and often with different lenders. Neither was set against the position you hold now. A refinance is the first point at which they get looked at together, and usually the first chance to bring two review dates into some kind of order.

Yes, and pharmacy is genuinely the exception here. Several institutions run dedicated pharmacy desks that understand a turnover-multiple goodwill valuation, know what a script base is worth and read the location rules without needing them explained. It matters at a refinance, because a generalist credit team applying a standard commercial framework to the same file arrives somewhere quite different.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on a pharmacy it frequently traces to which half of the position was being tested and by whom. A lender without a pharmacy desk assessing a goodwill request is a different conversation to a specialist doing the same thing. We look at why the answer was no, then place it where that reason is not the deciding one.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file. Where the freehold and the business are both moving there are two assessments and two discharges to coordinate, which takes longer, and SMSF refinances take longer again. We give you a realistic timeline at the start so you can plan the expiry dates around it.

The existing loan statements for every facility, two to three years of financial statements and tax returns for the pharmacy entity, script volumes and the PBS revenue and front-of-shop split, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, a statement of assets and liabilities, and the equipment schedules. For the premises we also want the lease where the business and the freehold sit in different entities.

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 the freehold and the business are both moving there are two sets of those, so 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. A borrowing arrangement funds a single asset, so it is the premises that sit in the fund while the business, the goodwill, the stock and the fitout are financed outside it. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and premises trading wholly as a business qualify. 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. The holding trust is reassigned to the incoming lender rather than dissolved, which carries a legal cost worth weighing against the gain. Your pharmacy entity leases the premises 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, 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 pharmacy premises 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 pharmacy is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the premises and the business, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers dispensary automation, shelving and shopfit, refrigeration, point of sale and delivery vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry stock through the gap between dispensing and PBS payment, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it describes most owners we speak to, particularly where the business was bought first and the freehold came later. The two facilities are set up years apart and then simply run. 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 laying out both halves, what the premises are likely to value at now, what the script base supports on the business side, what moving costs, and whether it is worth making. If it is not, we will say so and you can stay where you are.