Refinance your supermarket 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 a grocery refinance the work is separating two things that get run together. The building carries the security and values on comparable sales; the trade carries the servicing and needs margin, volume and turn presented together. We set both 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 neighbourhood grocery store or a full-line supermarket. 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 in grocery the spread between lenders is unusually wide. The majors do not publish an owner-occupier commercial LVR at all, several non-banks publish 75% to 80% in their product guides, and the loan terms differ by more than a decade. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are genuinely writing retail 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.

75% to 80% of the current value. A supermarket shop is standard commercial security, grouped with offices and warehouses rather than with specialised assets. The figure follows a fresh valuation, not the price you originally paid.

Because most of what a supermarket refit buys is plant rather than building. Refrigerated cases, the compressor pack, checkouts, self serve, shelving and lighting can be removed, and chattels are not normally included in a mortgage valuation of real property. That is not a wasted cheque. It landed on the trading side of the file, where it lowers running costs and lifts what the store clears, and that is what carries servicing. Building works are the exception: a slab, drainage, a dock or a structural change does belong in the number, and we make sure the valuer is briefed on those.

From the building and from the market. The property is valued on comparable sales and the rent the premises could command, so what moves it is what has happened to values in your area and the principal you have paid down since settlement. That is a straightforward thing to test, and we will give you a view on what a valuation is likely to return before you order one rather than after.

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 refrigeration or checkout program, a store extension, the deposit on a second store or a working capital buffer are all ordinary purposes. Equity in the store building to fund the next plant program is the loop most grocers use, and we evidence the purpose properly at the outset.

On its own facility, and that is deliberate rather than a compromise. A pack, cases and condensers go on equipment finance or a chattel mortgage over a term that matches the working life of the equipment, which is a very different number to the life of a building. Rolling them into a 25 year mortgage means paying for them long after they have been replaced. The property refinance can release equity toward the program without the plant ending up on the property loan.

It is read properly when it is presented properly. Grocery runs on thin gross margin and fast stock turn, so margin on its own tells a credit team very little. Set beside the volume and the rate the stock turns, it describes a completely normal and well-understood business model. We put the three together in the submission, with the plant program and what it changed alongside, rather than leaving an assessor to compare a grocery margin against a boutique.

Often not. The most common cause in grocery is a credit team treating a supermarket as a specialised trading asset when it is standard commercial security, and gearing it down accordingly. That is correctable. The shop is written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on retail size, on LVR and on how they read self-employed income. 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 an SMSF or a second property is involved it takes longer. 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 store, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, a statement of assets and liabilities, and the schedules for the plant and fitout facilities. For grocery the useful extras are point-of-sale reports showing sales by department, your gross margin and stock turn, and details of any plant program you have completed since settlement.

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. Retail premises sit 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. A shop trading wholly as a business qualifies, and it does not matter whether you or a tenant runs it, while a shop with a flat above it on the same title generally does not. It has to stay the same single property. 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 store extension. The plant is financed outside the fund in any case. 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 store 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. Reassign the holding trust to the incoming lender on the same single property, 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 supermarket 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 store is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the store, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers refrigerated cases and compressor packs, checkouts and self-serve terminals, shelving, lighting, bakery and deli equipment, forklifts and delivery vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to carry stock in a fast-turning business, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it is more common than you would think, because the loan is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the store is refitted and reworked 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 building is likely to value at now, where your spending has actually landed, 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.