Refinance your serviced apartment property 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 management rights the thing that decides your file is the remaining agreement term, and it falls whether you are trading well or not. We tell you where you sit on that, get the top-up done while the body corporate has no reason to refuse, and keep the lot and the business on separate terms. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

We refinance from $50K up to $30M across the lot and the rights business. On management rights the practical limit is usually set by the remaining agreement term rather than by the letting income, which is why we look at the term before anything else.

Because a serviced apartment in a letting pool is not ordinary residential security and management rights are not a property purchase at all, and a lender that treats either as a plain unit gets both wrong. Very few institutions write this well. We run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are genuinely active in short-stay strata and management rights, and present to one at a time so your credit file does not collect an enquiry for every conversation.

50% to 70% on a strata lot, with the banks generally at 50% to 60% and non-banks reaching 70%. Management rights sit lower: banks are selective to about 50% and non-banks reach 65%. The remaining agreement term and the size of the lot move both numbers more than the price does.

It means you are past the point where most lenders are comfortable, and it is the first thing to deal with. Fifteen years or more is the preferred position, and under about ten the LVR reduces sharply with some lenders declining outright rather than repricing. What makes this different from an ordinary lease is that the term is not a constraint sitting beside the business, it is what the business is valued on. Trading well does not slow it. Extending the agreement is the fix, and it is a body corporate decision.

By a motion at a general meeting of the body corporate, which means the answer depends on your relationship with the committee and the owners rather than on any lender. A manager who looks after the complex well, keeps the common property in order and is straightforward to deal with generally finds it uncontroversial. The timing runs opposite to instinct: ask while the term is still comfortable and nothing is riding on the answer, not once your finance depends on it and everyone can see that. Owners who top up every few years as routine housekeeping never face this.

It does, and the thresholds are blunt. Lenders measure internal area excluding balconies and car spaces: above 50 square metres is comfortable, 40 to 50 narrows the pool and tightens the LVR, and below 40 is specialist territory with a very short list of lenders. The trap is that marketing material and some plans quote a total that includes a balcony or car space, so a lot can sit in a different band from the one you assumed. We establish the real internal figure before lodging anything.

Sometimes, and at a refinance it is a live choice worth modelling rather than a fixed fact. A lot on a twelve month residential lease is read on residential criteria, at a higher LVR over a longer term with a much wider lender list. In a short-stay pool it is specialised accommodation security. The pool usually earns more and finances worse; the lease is the reverse. On a lot near a size threshold the choice can change the whole panel. It depends on the yield gap in your own building.

Usually not, and separating them is often the single change that improves the structure. The manager's lot is real property and is secured separately from the business, frequently at a different LVR and sometimes in a different entity. Keeping them apart means the lot can be reviewed on its own merits and the business on the agreement, with different lenders and terms if that suits. It matters most where the agreement term has run down, because the lot has not lost any value at all.

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. Management rights themselves are a business rather than real property, so what the fund holds is the lot, and how the two sit alongside each other needs working through rather than assuming. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and a lot used wholly in a short-stay accommodation business qualifies while one occupied as a residence 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 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. 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 short-stay lot 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.

A revaluation on improved letting numbers can release the deposit, which is how most multi-complex managers get there. The second set is assessed on its own agreement, its own pool and its own body corporate rather than on the strength of what you already run. The order matters: a release sized against a business whose agreement is running down is a smaller number than the same release taken after a top-up, so doing the term first and the release second is usually worth more than the reverse.

Yes, and evidence of council approval is required rather than assumed. Restrictions on short-term letting are a live issue in a number of councils and the position differs from one to the next, so a lender will want to see where your complex stands rather than take it on trust. Have that documented before an application. Where a building has a restriction in place, it changes the letting arrangement question rather than ending the conversation.

Often not, and on this asset a decline is frequently uninformative. Most institutions do not write management rights at all, and many treat a pool lot as a residential unit and price it wrongly. A no from one of those says nothing about whether the business is fundable. The real questions are the agreement term, the internal area and the letting arrangement, and we work through those before deciding where the file should go.

Around three to six weeks with a major bank and two to four weeks with a non-bank lender. Where a caretaking agreement is being extended alongside the refinance, the body corporate meeting sets the timetable rather than the lender, so allow for that. 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, the caretaking and letting agreement with every variation and its remaining term, the letting pool schedule showing how many lots are in it, two to three years of financial statements and tax returns, the strata plan with internal areas, body corporate levy notices and recent minutes, evidence of short-stay approval, 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 each current lender, and break costs where you are leaving a fixed rate. Where the agreement is being extended there is separate legal and body corporate cost, which is usually money very well spent given what the term does to the value. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Most of the time, no. Where the agreement position has to be sorted out before the file can go to a lender, or the lot and the business are being unbundled, a small mandate fee may apply, and we will always be upfront about this before any work begins.

Beyond refinancing the lot and the rights business, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers apartment furniture and furnishing packages, reception and booking technology, and laundry and housekeeping equipment. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts and lines of credit sized to body corporate levies and seasonal occupancy, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.