Refinance your transport depot 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 depot refinance the work is in the site. The gearing follows the mix of buildings to open yard, and years of pavement, fencing and workshop works have usually moved that mix since your loan was written. We get the valuer briefed on what has changed, 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 yard with a shed on it or a network of depots 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 a depot the spread between lenders is unusually wide, since the same site can be read as a building with a yard behind it or as hardstand with a shed on it. We do the legwork: we run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which are genuinely writing yard-heavy industrial right now, 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.

Around 80% of the current value on the buildings, and around 65% on open hardstand and vacant industrial land. A depot is a blend of the two, so your figure follows the mix on your site and a fresh valuation rather than the price you originally paid.

It can, and it is one of the main reasons a depot is worth revaluing. Pavement rated for laden trucks lifts the improved portion of the site, and the improved portion gears highest. The same goes for a workshop, an awning, an office, a weighbridge, fencing and lighting. None of it counts until a valuer sees it, so we brief the valuer on what has been done before the inspection rather than hoping it gets noticed on the day.

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. Sealing and rating more of the yard, a workshop or awning, the deposit on a second site, or a working capital buffer are all ordinary purposes. We evidence the purpose properly at the outset, which is what keeps it straightforward.

Yes. Zoning and permitted use, the vehicle movements the council allows and any hours-of-operation conditions are read afresh by an incoming valuer and credit team. It matters enormously for a depot that runs nights, because a consent permitting movements from seven in the morning does not describe a business whose runs start at four. Where the operation has grown past the consent, it is far better raised by you at the start with a plan attached than found halfway through an assessment, and we work through it with you.

Usually not, but it is established rather than assumed. A wash bay, an on-site diesel tank and an oil and water separator are ordinary parts of running a fleet. In Australia the process starts with a Preliminary Site Investigation, which reviews the site history and the land around it, and only if that raises a question does it go to a Detailed Site Investigation, which samples soil and groundwater. The requirement normally reaches you through the valuer rather than a published credit policy, and at least one lender lists contaminated land as an unacceptable security outright. Knowing which lenders will look at your site is the whole job.

Often not. A decline on a top up is one lender applying one policy on one day, and on yard-heavy industrial in particular the policies differ sharply. The site is standard commercial security, so it is written by a wide group of banks and non-banks with genuinely different appetites on industrial land, 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.

Often partly, and the caution matters more here than on most files. Prime movers, trailers, forklifts and yard plant sit better on asset finance against the vehicle, because the term should match its working life rather than a 25 year mortgage. A fuel and wages facility is there to revolve. What is genuinely worth consolidating is high cost short-term debt that benefits from long-term property security. We map what belongs where and move only that.

Yes, and it is the most common reason a depot gets refinanced. We arrange a revaluation of the site you hold, then release what the valuation and servicing support, and use it as the deposit on the next one. The second site has its own arithmetic, because a container yard is mostly hardstand and gears lower than a depot with a workshop on it. We run the refinance and the purchase together, since the order they settle in decides what the second lender sees.

Four to six weeks from application to settlement for a straightforward file. Where an SMSF, a site investigation or several depots are 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 trading entity, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, a statement of assets and liabilities, and the schedules for the fleet and plant facilities. For the site we want the consent and any conditions on it, details of works done since you bought, and any environmental reports. Contracted linehaul, supermarket, council or school work is worth putting forward too, because it reads very differently to spot freight.

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. 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 depot trading wholly as a business qualifies, whether your own company occupies it or a tenant does. It has to stay the same single property, and a depot and the block next door count as two properties even where the trucks use them as one yard. 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 to seal more of the yard. 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 depot 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 a depot 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 depot is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the depot, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers prime movers, rigid trucks and trailers, forklifts, reach stackers, yard plant, wash bay equipment and workshop gear. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts, lines of credit and cash-flow funding to cover fuel and tyres, to carry the gap between invoicing and payment and to cover wages, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.

Yes, and it is more common than you would think, because a depot loan is set up at settlement and then simply runs while the yard grows 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 site is likely to value at now given the works you have done, 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.