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Buying a commercial property, whether it's premises for your own business, a freehold purchase via your SMSF, or a new asset for your portfolio, needs finance structured around the deal from day one: deposit and LVR, settlement timeframes, and how the purchase is secured. We run a full tender across banks, non-banks, and private credit so you go into a purchase, or an auction, with finance already sorted and the strongest terms in the market behind you.
Buying the premises your business operates from is a different transaction to an investment purchase, and lenders treat it more favourably. Owner-occupier commercial loans can reach 80% LVR, or higher with residential or other property as additional security, because the lender takes both the real estate and the trading business, and your rent becomes an internal transfer rather than a cost. The structure question is decided early, whether to buy in the operating company, a separate holding trust, or a self-managed super fund. SMSF purchase of business real property is widely used by Australian business owners, where the fund buys the premises, the business leases it back at market rent, and rent plus contributions service a limited-recourse loan, though it demands the right limited-recourse borrowing arrangement and advice.
Stamp duty, GST (often handled as a going-concern or margin-scheme sale) and the small business CGT concessions available on a later sale all materially change the after-tax outcome. Lenders assess the business's capacity to pay via add-backs to reported profit, including depreciation, interest, owner salaries above market and one-off items, and want the lease between the entities documented properly. Zoning, permitted use, environmental history and make-good obligations are checked on the property side. We package business financials with a defensible add-back schedule, the contract and lease terms, and the ownership structure, then tender so you see owner-occupier pricing, LVR and amortisation across banks and non-banks, and structure the debt so the premises and the business are not unnecessarily cross-collateralised.
Alasdair is a former banker and Executive Manager at both Westpac and CBA, bringing decades of senior banking experience to every commercial deal. He understands exactly how lenders assess risk, structure facilities, and price commercial debt, and he uses that insider knowledge to negotiate outcomes that most brokers simply can't access. If you're looking for an adviser who has run the bank's side of the table, you've found him.