Private business loans secured by property — how the short-term desk works

A bank looks backwards at your last two years. A private lender looks at the property, the plan and the clock. That difference is why so many owners with a hard deadline — a tax bill, a settlement date, a supplier who wants a deposit by Friday — end up talking to a private lending desk instead of waiting in a bank’s credit queue.

This page is the overview. It explains what a private business loan is, which structure fits which property, how the decision is actually made and what drives the speed.

What is a private business loan, in plain terms?

It’s a loan from a lender that isn’t a bank, written for a business purpose and secured over real estate. The security might be the family home, an investment unit, a factory, a warehouse or a shopfront, owned by you, your company or your family trust. The loan is short — measured in months, not decades — and it’s built to be repaid from something specific: a property sale, a refinance, a big debtor payment or a contract milestone.

The quick version:

• Size: $20,000 to $5,000,000.
• Security: residential or commercial property, as a first mortgage, a second mortgage or a caveat loan.
• Purpose: business only — working capital, tax, stock, a purchase, a buy-out, a deposit or a bridge.
• Speed: $20k to $250k possible the same day once the property checks out; up to $5m possible within 24–48 hours.
• Credit and tax history: past credit problems and ATO debt are weighed case by case, not used as an automatic no.

None of this is fringe lending any more. The Reserve Bank’s October 2025 Bulletin reported that the non-bank share of SME lending “has increased strongly since the start of 2022”, and that small businesses still name the need to put up property or other physical assets as collateral as a key obstacle to getting finance. Private lenders turn that obstacle around: the property is the very thing that lets them say yes quickly. Even the government’s own business portal notes non-bank lenders can have “more flexible loan criteria than traditional banks” (business.gov.au).

Which structure fits: first mortgage, second mortgage or caveat?

Three questions settle it. Is there already a loan registered on the title? Which state or territory is the property in? And how long do you need the money for?

Your situation	Usual short-term structure	Why it fits
Property owned outright, or you’re happy to pay out the existing loan	Short-term first mortgage	Top spot on title, the most borrowing room, the cleanest exit to a bank later
Existing bank loan you want to keep, property anywhere in Australia	Short-term registered second mortgage	Leaves the cheaper bank loan alone and ranks behind it
Victorian property with an existing mortgage and a very tight deadline	Caveat loan	Lodged against the title quickly, with no need to wait on the first lender
Property in NSW, Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania, the ACT or the NT, with an existing mortgage	Short-term registered second mortgage	Does exactly what a caveat does elsewhere, usually arranged just as quickly

That last row is worth underlining. Caveat loans are written for Victorian property. Owners in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide aren’t missing out — the registered second mortgage is a stronger document, it gives us a registered interest rather than a warning on the title, and with land dealings now lodged electronically it no longer drags. In NSW, for example, all land dealings, caveats and priority notices have had to be lodged electronically since 11 October 2021 (NSW Registrar General).

The time horizon matters too. If the exit is a few weeks away — say a property sale has already gone unconditional — a lean second mortgage or caveat is usually enough. If the exit is a refinance back to a bank in several months, a first mortgage can make that refinance simpler, because the bank only has one lender to pay out. Our page on short-term private lenders versus banks walks through that hand-back.

How does a private lender decide yes or no?

Four things, in roughly this order of weight:

1. The property. Its value, type, location and what’s already registered against it. Total borrowing measured against value — the loan-to-value ratio, or LVR — sets the ceiling. Houses in established suburbs sit at one end of the comfort scale, specialised or remote property at the other. Our page on how equity is calculated shows the arithmetic.
2. The purpose. It must be a business purpose, and specific beats vague. “Clear the ATO debt so the payment plan can be closed” reads far better than “working capital”.
3. The exit. How the loan gets repaid and when. A signed contract of sale, a refinance in progress, a debtor with a confirmed payment date or a contract milestone are all real exits. Hope is not.
4. The people. ID for everyone on title, company or trust details, and an honest picture of credit history. Defaults and tax debt are discussed, not used as a filter.

Notice what isn’t on the list: two years of tax returns, a polished business plan and a long repayment-capacity test. Some files still need recent bank statements or a short letter from the accountant — the private loan documents checklist sets out when — but the property and the exit do the heavy lifting.

Already know the property and the date you need funds by? Give us both in a 60-second enquiry and we’ll tell you which structure fits before anything else happens.

How fast can a private business loan settle?

Speed comes less from the lender’s appetite and more from the paperwork chain behind the loan. Every property-secured deal needs the same links: confirmation of value, a title search, loan documents signed by everyone on title, solicitors on both sides, and — for a first mortgage — the existing lender’s payout and discharge. The fastest files are the ones where those links are ready before anyone asks.

What usually decides the pace:

• Loan size. $20k to $250k is possible the same day; larger loans up to $5m are possible within 24–48 hours.
• Whether a valuation is needed and how quickly the valuer can get access to the property.
• Who has to sign. A co-owner overseas or a trustee who can’t find the trust deed adds days, not hours.
• Whether an existing lender is involved. Second mortgages and caveat loans leave the first loan alone, which removes the slowest party from the timeline.

The detailed timeline, step by step, is on how fast private lenders settle.

Illustrative example: one house, three ways to fund it

This example is illustrative only. Figures are rounded and not drawn from any real client file.

A joinery business in Melbourne’s south-east lands a large shop fit-out. The timber supplier wants $180,000 up front, within a week. The owner’s house is worth about $1,200,000, with a bank loan of $500,000 owing.

• Existing debt against value: $500,000 ÷ $1,200,000 — roughly 42% LVR.
• Adding $180,000: $680,000 ÷ $1,200,000 — roughly 57% combined LVR.

There’s plenty of equity. The question is which structure:

Option	What happens	Fit for this job
Short-term first mortgage of $680,000	Pays out the bank and lends the extra on top	Overkill — disturbs a perfectly good bank loan for a short need
Registered second mortgage of $180,000	Sits behind the bank loan	Good fit, leaves the bank loan untouched
Caveat loan of $180,000	Lodged against the Victorian title	Quickest route for a one-week deadline

The exit is the fit-out’s progress payments over the next few months. Because the house is in Victoria, the caveat loan is the natural fit for the deadline. If the same house were in Brisbane, a registered second mortgage would do the identical job, usually just as fast.

What if there’s no property to offer?

Not every business owns real estate. For trading businesses without property, unsecured and cash-flow options typically run from $5,000 to $500,000, sized on turnover and recent bank statements rather than equity. They’re smaller and assessed differently, but they can move quickly too — see fast short-term business loans for how those are sized.

Put your property and your deadline in front of a real person

Private lending works best when the right structure is picked on the first call, not the third. That only takes two pieces of information most owners already know by heart: where the property is and when the money has to land.

The enquiry takes about 60 seconds and there’s no credit check when you first enquire. Your details stay with one desk — they aren’t fired off to a pile of lenders, so your phone won’t light up with strangers. A real person reads your answers, works out what fits and calls you. Please fill the form in accurately, especially the property’s address and state, what’s owed against it and your deadline, so the first answer you get is the right one.

See if you qualify →