Refinance your service station 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 fuel site refinance the work is in appetite rather than arithmetic. Several lenders exclude service stations by name, so the job is knowing who genuinely writes them and putting your tank record in front of them properly. We do that 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 site you want repriced or two held under one structure. What the new limit will be is set by the current valuation and by servicing rather than by what you originally borrowed, and on a fuel site it is established with the lender rather than read off a table.

Because on a service station your bank may not be in the market at all, and several lenders exclude them in writing. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are genuinely writing fuel this quarter, 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.

There is no published answer. No Australian lender publishes a figure for a fuel site, and the ones that publish generous numbers on standard commercial security exclude servos outright. What decides the outcome is which lender the file goes to and how the tank record is presented, which is our job.

It is usually the largest thing that has moved. At purchase the tank history was disclosed to you by a vendor and verified by a consultant. Now you hold the integrity testing, the monitoring results, the maintenance history and any notice that has been issued and closed out. A lender assessing an operating site reads that record first, and an owner who can produce it in full is a materially easier file than a buyer relying on a disclosure.

Not in the same way. A decommissioning followed by a validated site assessment ends the ongoing storage obligations, and that widens the group of lenders prepared to consider the property. What it does not do is erase the history of the land, which follows the title and still gets read at valuation. We establish how each lender treats a validated former fuel site before anything is lodged, because they do not treat it the same way.

You are, as the owner and operator, and the obligations run with the land rather than with whoever installed the system. Where the operator of an out-of-use system cannot be located, the landowner can be treated as the person responsible. That is exactly why the record you have kept is worth putting forward at a refinance rather than waiting for a lender to ask for it.

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 forecourt rebuild, a canopy or dispenser upgrade, converting or expanding the shop, or a deposit on a second site are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset.

As a second income line rather than an afterthought. Fuel turns over volume on thin margins and ties up working capital between delivery and sale, and the shop earns on a different rhythm. Lenders read the two separately, so we present them separately, and we structure the borrowing the same way, with a stock line carrying the stock rather than the mortgage carrying it.

It is a common reason to move and it says nothing about your site. Appetite for fuel is narrower than for standard commercial and it shifts as institutions reweight their books. We know who is genuinely writing it this quarter, including the specialist non-banks, and we place the file where the security type is not the deciding issue.

Yes, and it is usually the easier file. The rent from a long lease to an established operator services the loan, so the lender reads the lease first: the term left to run, the covenant behind it and whether the rent sits at market. The tank position still gets assessed, because the obligations attach to the land, but the income is contracted rather than traded.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file. Where the valuation calls for site investigation work it takes longer, because the report has to be commissioned and read, and SMSF refinances take 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, fuel volumes and shop revenue split out, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, and a statement of assets and liabilities. For the site itself we want the tank integrity testing and monitoring records, any environmental reports, and the decommissioning and validation documents where the tanks have been removed.

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. Where site investigation work is called for that is an additional cost, and we tell you before it is ordered. 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 site trading wholly as a business qualifies, whether your company runs it or a tenant operator does. 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 operating company leases the site 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. SMSF lending on standard commercial security generally runs between 65% and 80%, the major banks have exited SMSF lending, and lenders want a liquidity buffer left in the fund after settlement. On a fuel site the first question is which of the remaining SMSF lenders will take the security at all. 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 service station 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 site is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the site, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers dispensers and forecourt plant, canopy and lighting, shop refrigeration and shelving, point of sale, car wash plant and delivery vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry fuel and shop stock between delivery and sale, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it describes most owners we speak to. The purchase facility is set up at settlement and then simply runs, while the compliance record that a refinance is assessed on quietly builds underneath 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 which lenders will look at the site, 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.