Refinance your strata office 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 suite refinance the security is straightforward and the occupancy is not. A floor that is part occupied and part let is read on two different bases at once, and how it is presented decides which way a credit team takes it. We set that out properly, place the file, 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 suite or two lots in the same building held under one structure. The new limit is set by the current valuation and by servicing, not by what you originally borrowed.

Because your bank can only tell you what your bank will do, and on strata office the published maximums differ sharply between lenders for the identical suite. Add a floor that is part occupied and part let and the differences widen again, because lenders read that mix in genuinely different ways. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, present to one at a time so your credit file does not collect an enquiry for every conversation, and model the break costs, valuation and legals against what moving actually gains you.

The published range runs from an indicative 65% up to 80%, and the lender you are taken to decides where you land. The suite is standard commercial security either way. The figure follows a fresh valuation, not the price you originally paid.

It turns an owner-occupier file into a hybrid one, and the two halves are assessed on different bases. The part your firm occupies is read through the business, with the rent you no longer pay a landlord added back when a lender tests servicing. The part you let is rental income, read through the lease and the covenant behind it. How much of the lot the firm still occupies is what tips a lender toward treating the whole thing as owner-occupied or as part investment, and that is worth settling before an application goes anywhere.

A written sub-lease, at a market rent, with the term, the review mechanism and the outgoings set out. That is what turns the let portion into usable evidence rather than a line in a bank statement. The same applies where the space is occupied by a related entity: it still needs to be in writing and at market rent to carry weight. If the arrangement has been running on a handshake, putting it in writing before we lodge is usually worth doing, and it costs very little.

You own the lot, and letting part of it is ordinarily a matter for you. What is worth checking is the by-laws, because a scheme can regulate how a lot is used, and it is far better to confirm the position before a lender asks than to discover it mid-assessment. We look at the scheme documents as part of putting the file together.

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 fitout, a reconfiguration to create lettable rooms, the deposit on the lot next door or a working capital buffer for the practice are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset, which is what keeps it straightforward.

No, and we say so plainly. A law firm, an accounting practice and an architecture studio buying or refinancing the same suite get the same loan, because a lender is looking at the suite and at your numbers rather than at what is on the door. What moves the figure is the security, the doc type and the loan size, not the trade.

Often yes, and a lender will usually take security over both. They remain two lots on the strata plan even where you open the wall between them, and that opening affects common property so it needs the approval of the owners corporation. The choice worth thinking through is whether you occupy both or occupy one and let the other, because that decides how the combined file is assessed. We run the refinance and the purchase together, since the order they settle in decides what the second lender sees.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on strata office the policies differ sharply. The suite is standard commercial security, so it is written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on floor area, on LVR and on how they read a part-let lot. We look at why the answer was no, then place the file where that reason is not the deciding one.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file. Where two lots, an SMSF or a sub-lease that needs documenting are involved it takes longer at the front, which is time well spent. 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 firm, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, a statement of assets and liabilities, and the schedules for the fitout and equipment facilities. For the lot we want the levy notices, the most recent financial statements of the owners corporation, the insurance certificate and recent minutes, and where part of the suite is let, the sub-lease.

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. Break costs are an economic cost, so they are calculated on the day and vary with how much fixed term is left. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. An office suite sits comfortably inside a fund, and this is also one of the more intricate refinances in commercial finance, where the detail decides whether it works. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and a suite used wholly as an office qualifies whether you or a tenant occupies it, which is useful where part of the floor is let. A suite with a residence attached to the same title generally does not. It has to stay the same single property, and the suite next door is a second property even where the wall between them has been opened. 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, and borrowed money cannot fund an improvement, which means the arrangement cannot pay for a fitout. The holding trust is reassigned to the incoming lender rather than dissolved, which carries a legal cost worth weighing against the gain. Your operating entity leases the suite 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. 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 an office suite 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 suite is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the suite, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers fitout and joinery, technology and server equipment, office furniture and vehicles where a practice runs them. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit, insurance premium funding and cash-flow facilities that carry wages and the gap between work in progress and billing, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it describes most firms we speak to, because the facility is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the practice changes around 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 what the suite is likely to value at now, how your occupancy will read, 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.