Refinancing Office and Practice Loans as a Professional Office Owner

A practice that owns its office can carry four or five loans at once. One sits on the strata suite, a unit in a shared building, or on the whole building. Another can pay for a fee base, a block of clients bought from another practice, or a retiring partner's share. The rest cover the fit-out, laptops and servers, and an overdraft that carries the firm while work in progress waits to be billed. Here is what refinancing each one, or combining them against the office, does to the monthly repayment and the total interest.

Does the loan on the fee base you bought take more each month than the loan on the office? Is a partner stepping back next year, with the buyout and the guarantees still to be worked out? Does the overdraft climb every time a large matter or project sits unbilled for months? Have the suite, the fit-out and the IT finance stayed with three lenders because nobody has had a free afternoon to compare them?

The ABS business counts released in August 2026 cover Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, the industry division that takes in legal, accounting and engineering firms. They put the number of actively trading businesses in it at 366,289 on 30 June 2026, up 3.6% over the year. Refinancing the office and the loans around it is a specialist area we can assist with, for principals of accounting, legal, engineering and similar practices.

Whether the debt sits on the suite, the fee base or the servers, Ardent Capital Group can help the principals refinance each of the practice's loans, taken in the order that suits the firm.

The loans a practice that owns its office can be paying

Owning its rooms gives a practice something a tenant firm lacks: a property a lender can value and lend against. Each loan around it was priced and given its term on the day it was written.

• The office. A strata suite, a whole floor or a freestanding building. It may be held by the practice, the principals, or a trust that leases it to the practice.
• Goodwill. The value of a client list and the fees it brings in. A goodwill loan buys clients from a retiring practitioner, another firm or a partner's share.
• The fit-out. Partitions, glazed meeting rooms, workstations, joinery, a boardroom and the server cupboard.
• Technology. Laptops, monitors, servers, network gear and the multifunction printer, financed on a lease or an equipment loan.
• Cash flow. An overdraft, sometimes an ATO payment plan, and premium funding: a loan that pays the professional indemnity insurer up front and is repaid monthly.

The principals' home loans and cards count too. A principal who guarantees the practice's loans promises to repay them if the practice cannot, so each guarantor's personal repayments go into the lender's sums.

Example: a two-principal accounting practice and its five debts

Setting each loan beside its repayment shows where a practice's money goes. The figures are illustrative. Two principals own their accounting practice's strata suite. They bought a fee base three years ago, refitted the floor at the same time, and want to know what refinancing could change.

The table lists each loan's balance, assumed rate, months left and monthly repayment.

Illustrative, rounded to the dollar. Every rate here is an assumption chosen for the arithmetic, and none is offered as a quote or a market rate. Premium funding and any ATO plan are left out.

The loan for the fee base has $360k owing at an assumed 9.5%, with 48 months left, and costs $9,044 a month. That loan is well under half the size of the loan on the suite, yet it takes the largest monthly repayment. The reason is the term: four years for the fee base, against fifteen for the suite.

How a refinance changes the practice's loans

Refinancing replaces one or more of the practice's loans with a new one. Three things can shift: the rate, the months left, and the security, which is the asset a lender can sell if the loan is not repaid.

• Rate. A lower rate over the same months trims the repayment and the interest alike. The rate is the lender's to set once it has assessed the practice.
• Months left. Moving the fee base balance from 48 months onto a 25-year property term cuts its repayment sharply. It also multiplies the interest, because the practice keeps that $360k borrowed for about 21 years longer.
• Security. A loan secured by the suite is generally priced lower than one resting on goodwill or equipment alone.

The loans in the example are amortising, which means each runs down to nil by the end of the term, unless it ends in a balloon, a lump sum left to the final repayment. Every repayment pays interest on the balance still owed, and principal, which reduces that balance. Because each month's interest comes from the balance outstanding, the interest share of each repayment is largest at the start.

Worked example: one month on the goodwill loan for the fee base

One month of the goodwill loan shows why a short loan clears quickly, even at a higher rate. Take the $360k loan at an assumed 9.5%: month one carries $2,850 of interest ($360k multiplied by 9.5%, divided by 12). The repayment is $9,044, so $6,194 reduces the balance that month. On a loan this short, most of each repayment is already principal.

Refinancing each of the practice's loans

Each of a practice's loans paid for something different: a building, a client list, furniture or laptops.

The strata suite or office building

The suite is the one asset that can secure the other debts as well as its own. A lender sets its limit as a share of the suite's value, the loan-to-value ratio or LVR.

An office, strata or freehold, is standard commercial security, which can be lent against to up to 80% of its value. For strata office, published maximums run from 65% to 80% depending on the lender. The major banks publish no maximum for an owner-occupied office. Banks commonly publish 10 to 15 years for a loan on an office, while non-bank lenders write 25 to 30.

A refinance revalues the suite, and the valuation sets the equity available, the gap between value and debt. It can come in below the price paid, so it comes first. If the loan on the suite is on a fixed rate, it may carry a break cost, a fee for ending a fixed rate early. The more rates have fallen since the rate was fixed, the bigger it is.

Where a family or unit trust owns the office and leases it to the practice, the lender reads that lease. It weighs the rent paid to the trust alongside the practice's own figures. An office held in a self-managed super fund refinances on narrower rules. Our professional office refinance page covers both, and refinancing ahead of a term expiry or review.

Buying a fee base or buying out a partner

A fee base or a partner's share pays for clients and future fees, not for property.

A loan to buy a fee base, a book of clients or an outgoing partner's share is repaid from the fees those clients bring in. Its term can run shorter than a loan against the suite. In accounting, a fee base can be priced on its gross recurring fees, the compliance and advisory work billed each year. Some sale contracts carry a retention clause, which adjusts the price by how many clients stay after settlement. Our business loans for accounting firms cover fee base and buy-in funding on their own.

A refinance can move the goodwill loan, change its term, or fold it into the property loan. A partner's departure can prompt one: the outgoing partner may want to come off the guarantees, and the continuing partners may need funds to pay out that share. Your accountant and solicitor settle the price and the partnership agreement; we arrange the finance around what they set.

The fit-out, laptops and servers

A practice's desks last far longer than its laptops. Effective life is the number of years an asset can be used to produce income, taken from the ATO's determination or worked out by the business. It is a tax figure, not a promise of how long the equipment will run. The ATO's effective life determination sets how many years each asset is depreciated over for tax.

It gives laptops 2 years, desktop computers and servers 4, multifunction printers 5, office chairs 10, and workstations, including desks and partitions, 20. One five-year loan over all of them outlives the laptops and ends long before the workstations.

In an owned suite, built-in partitions, joinery and glazed rooms stay with the property. So the fit-out balance can be refinanced into the property loan where the valuation allows. Laptops and servers would be replaced several times over a 25-year property term, so their loans can keep their own term. Software billed as a monthly subscription is a running cost rather than an asset a lender can take security over.

Overdraft, work in progress and the ATO

A practice is paid well after its people do the work, and the overdraft carries that wait. Before fees reach the bank they sit as work in progress, time recorded but not yet billed, and debtors, invoices sent but not yet paid. Firms call the two together lock-up.

A law firm also pays disbursements, such as court filing fees and expert reports, before it can recover them from the client. Rolled into a term loan, the overdraft is paid off and its limit closes, so the refinance options here leave it in place. Our law firm business loans cover work in progress and disbursement funding.

Some practices are paying the ATO under a payment plan for GST, the goods and services tax, or for PAYG withholding, which is tax held back from staff pay. A lender that accepts the plan can clear it with a new loan. Most plans leave the general interest charge, the ATO's interest on unpaid tax, ticking over. Since 1 July 2025 that charge is no longer deductible, while interest on a business loan may be; your accountant works out how each applies to the firm.

Premium funding adds a monthly instalment. The Tax Practitioners Board requires a registered tax agent who charges fees to keep cover meeting its requirements for as long as they are registered. So the premium is a cost the practice carries every year.

Putting the practice's loans together

Because the practice owns its suite, the fee base and fit-out loans can sit against the office where the valuation allows.

Example: one $1.38M, four ways to refinance it

This example tests ways of refinancing the invented practice's three largest loans. The options work on the $1.38M they total; the IT loan and overdraft stay as they are. Each option is measured against keeping all three unchanged. Watch the repayment and the total interest together: an option that lowers one can raise the other.

Illustrative and rounded. These rates are assumed for the sums only; they are not market rates or quotes. Valuation, legal, discharge and break costs, the IT loan and the overdraft are left out.

One property loan over 15 years at an assumed 6.3% costs $11,870 a month, $9,092 less than today. Interest rises $123k, because goodwill and fit-out now run fifteen years, not four and three.

Moving the suite alone trims $248 a month and $45k of interest. The two-split option lowers the monthly repayment by $5,650 for the first three years. In exchange it puts the $480k of goodwill and fit-out on a five-year schedule. Those balances then take five years to clear, not the four and three they take today. The 25-year option gives the lowest repayment. It costs $730k more in interest than today, because goodwill bought three years ago and a fit-out would be repaid over the same 25 years as the building.

Which trade suits depends on the partners' plans. A partner retiring in three years and a plan to buy the floor above can each favour a different option. The choice is the practice's.

The valuation also decides which options exist. On an assumed valuation of $1.9M, the $1.38M total is about 73% of the suite's value. A lender lending to 80% would allow up to $1.52M. A lender capping strata office at 65% would stop at $1.235M, $145k short of the combined balance.

What secures the combined loan

Security for a combined loan can include the suite, the business and the principals.

• The suite. The new lender takes a mortgage over the office, and the old mortgage is discharged, removed from the title, at settlement.
• A general security agreement. Security over the practice's other assets, including its debtors and goodwill. It is recorded on the PPSR, the national register of security interests in personal property. It does not cover land, buildings or fixtures to land. When a loan moves, it helps to check that the outgoing lender's registration is released.
• Guarantees. The principals give fresh guarantees to the new lender. A retiring partner can be released at this point, subject to the lender's assessment of those who remain.
• The home. Adding a principal's home makes it security for the practice's debts, a choice for the principal and any co-owner. Where a home already secures practice debt, a refinance against the suite can look at releasing it. Our home loans for business owners take up the mortgage on the home itself.

Several principals and several entities

With several principals, each name can sit on more than one loan. The practice can trade through a company, with a service trust supplying its staff and administration. The principals can hold the suite in a unit trust, where each owner holds units much like shares, and have each principal guarantee both. A lender assesses every borrower and guarantor: the practice's financials, the trust's rent and loan, and each principal's income and debts.

Before the practice applies

The paperwork for a refinance covers the practice's own books, its billing and any change among the partners.

What to line up first

Three items settle what is being refinanced and who is borrowing.

• Payout figures. It helps to request a written payout figure from every lender: the amount that clears the loan on a given day. Ask too for any break cost on the loan on the suite if its rate is fixed, and the early repayment terms on the goodwill loan and IT lease.
• The practice's own accounts. An accounting practice's own year-end accounts can be the last job finished. It helps to lodge them, and the current BAS (business activity statement), before applying.
• A partner change. An outgoing partner's agreed terms show who borrows and who guarantees.

Billings, work in progress and debtors

A practice's income is its people's time turned into fees. The bank statements show those fees as they arrive, and each BAS reports the period's sales and costs.

• Recurring against one-off work. Annual compliance and retainer clients pay fees every year. A single large matter or project pays once.
• Lock-up. An aged debtors report and a work in progress report show how long fees take to arrive. Billings that sit unpaid for months show up as a higher overdraft.
• Salaries and super. Salaries come straight off billings. Reception and administration staff in an accounting firm fall under the Clerks Private Sector Award. Law clerks and graduates fall under the Legal Services Award, and degree-qualified engineers under the Professional Employees Award.

Documents to gather

These documents show what the practice owes, what it earns and who is liable for its loans.

• Payout letters for the loan on the suite, the goodwill loan, the fit-out loan and the IT lease, plus the overdraft limit and balance
• The practice's financials and tax returns, lodged, for each of the past two years, plus those of any trust holding the suite
• BAS for the current year and recent statements for every operating account
• Aged debtors and work in progress reports
• The lease between the trust and the practice, if the suite is held separately, and the strata levies
• The fee base sale contract, including any retention clause, and the partnership or shareholders' agreement
• The professional indemnity renewal and any premium funding contract
• Statements for each principal's personal debts: the home, any car and the credit cards

Questions about refinancing a professional office and practice

A partner retires next year. Can the buyout go into the refinance?

Yes, a buyout can be funded within a refinance where the suite's valuation and the practice's cash flow carry the larger loan. The lender assesses the continuing partners as borrowers and guarantors, and the agreed price comes from your accountant and solicitor.

Some of the clients from the fee base we bought have left. Does that hurt a refinance of that loan?

It can. Clients who left after settlement lower the practice's fees, and so the income that repays the goodwill loan. Where a retention clause reduced the price and that adjustment was paid against the loan, the balance owed is lower too.

Our work in progress is large on the balance sheet. How does it show in a refinance?

Work in progress is time recorded but not yet billed. The bank statements show fees once they are collected, and the aged reports show how long work in progress and debtors take to arrive.

Our professional indemnity premium is paid monthly through premium funding. Does it count?

Yes. Premium funding is a loan, and its instalments are included in the repayments a lender sets against the practice's income.

Can the money in our trust account help us borrow?

No. Trust money is held on behalf of clients or others, and it is not the firm's own money. The practice's own figures are in its operating accounts and financials.

The office is in our family trust and the practice pays it rent. Who applies?

The trust, through its trustee, borrows against the suite, and the lender reads the rent the practice pays alongside the practice's financials. The lender can also ask the principals to guarantee it.

Can my home come off the practice's loans?

It can, where the suite and the practice's cash flow carry the loans on their own. A lender assesses the remaining security and income before it releases the home.

What does moving lenders cost before anything is saved?

Expect a valuation of the suite, legal costs, discharge fees on each loan paid out, and a break cost if the loan on the suite is on a fixed rate. Payout letters show each figure.

Will shopping around show on my credit file?

It is the formal application that shows, on the file of every borrower and guarantor. We approach lenders whose policy fits a professional practice, so fewer enquiries are recorded.

We are halfway through the year and last year's accounts are not lodged. Can we still apply?

Some lenders accept recent BAS and statements while accounts are completed, known as alt-doc lending. Lodged accounts give every lender full figures.

Going through your practice's loans with us

The suite lets a practice's other loans be refinanced together, or matched one by one to the life of what they paid for. At Ardent Capital Group we assist principals of accounting, legal and engineering practices with refinancing office, goodwill and fit-out loans, partner buyouts and working capital. Ardent Capital Group arranges the finance and the order in which the practice's loans are refinanced, and your accountant confirms the tax position first. If the practice's loans are due for a look, bring them to us and we would gladly work through them together.

Written by

Nick Chong

Managing Director, M.AppFin, Dip. Mortgage Mgmt

Nick holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics, a Master of Applied Finance and an Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning. He founded Ardent Capital in 2016 after more than a decade in financial planning and mortgage broking. For the past ten years he has led a team of finance specialists, mortgage advisers, brokers and credit analysts, all working to secure optimal outcomes for clients and always acting in their best interests. The team brings both a qualitative and a quantitative approach to every deal.