Short-term business loans: the whole menu, and how to pick fast

Every enquiry that reaches this desk comes with a date attached. A supplier wants paying on Friday. A premises settlement is booked for the 28th. The ATO has written for the third time. Short-term business loans exist for exactly that moment: business-purpose money, usually secured by property, held for months rather than decades and repaid from something you can already point to — a sale, a refinance, a contract payment, a large invoice.

The tricky part isn’t finding money. It’s choosing the right structure, because the structure decides how fast the funds move, how much you can raise and what happens to the bank loan you already have. This page lays out the whole short-term menu side by side and gives you the three questions that settle the choice in minutes.

What makes a business loan “short-term”?

Two things: how long it runs and how it ends.

• Length. Short-term loans are measured in months, not decades. There’s a finish line from day one.
• The exit. Instead of decades of instalments, the loan is cleared in one hit by a known event — a property sale settling, a bank refinance being approved, a progress claim being paid, a business sale completing.

Banks build loans around long-term serviceability, which takes time to prove. Short-term private lenders build them around the security and the exit, which is why they can move in days and why they’ll look at files a bank won’t: a tax debt, an old default, a deal that has to close before the next credit committee meets.

One rule never bends: the money is for business purposes. The property behind it can be your home, an investment property, a factory or a shop — residential or commercial — but the loan funds the business.

Which short-term structures can you choose from?

Here’s the full menu. Each row has its own page if you want the detail.

Structure	Where it sits on title	Where it works	Typical size	Usually the pick when…
Caveat loan	Caveat recorded behind any existing mortgage	Victorian property	$20k – $5m	Speed is everything and the exit is close and clear
Short-term second mortgage	Registered mortgage ranking behind your first lender	Every state and territory	$20k – $5m	You want to keep your bank loan and borrow against the equity above it
Short-term first mortgage	Registered first mortgage; any existing loan is paid out	Every state and territory	$20k – $5m	The property is clear, or the current first loan needs replacing
Bridging loan	First or second mortgage, sometimes over two properties	Every state and territory	$20k – $5m	You’re buying before a sale settles, or waiting on funds that are definitely coming
Private business loan	First mortgage, second mortgage or caveat (Victoria)	Every state and territory	$20k – $5m	The bank said no, or said “maybe in six weeks”
Unsecured cash-flow loan	Nothing on title	Trading businesses Australia-wide	Typically $5k – $500k	There’s no property, but turnover and bank statements are steady

If your property is in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT or the Northern Territory, the word “caveat” shouldn’t put you off. Outside Victoria the same job is done with a short-term registered second mortgage, usually arranged just as quickly — and because it’s registered like any other mortgage, everyone involved knows exactly where it ranks.

Which one fits? Three questions that decide it

Run through these in order. Most owners land on the right structure before they reach the third.

1. Where does the property sit on title today?

• Nothing owing: a short-term first mortgage is the cleanest security and usually stretches the furthest.
• A bank loan you want to keep: borrow behind it — a caveat loan (Victoria) or a second mortgage (anywhere).
• A bank loan you need gone — it’s expiring, in arrears, or the bank has gone quiet — a first mortgage that pays it out and adds the cash you need.

2. Which state is the property in? Victoria gives you the choice of a caveat loan or a second mortgage. Every other state and territory uses the registered second mortgage. Electronic lodgement has made registration far quicker than it once was: in New South Wales, all land dealings, caveats and priority notices have had to be lodged electronically since October 2021, so a registered mortgage no longer means waiting on paper.

3. How long do you need it, and what pays it back? Weeks until a payment lands points to a caveat or second mortgage. A property sale already under contract points to bridging. A larger amount with a longer runway, or a plan to refinance to a bank once the books are tidied, often points to a first mortgage.

Already know your property, your state and your deadline? Tell us in about a minute and we’ll work out the structure for you.

How fast can a short-term business loan settle?

Speed depends on preparation as much as on us. As a guide, $20k to $250k is possible same day on a property-secured loan, and up to $5m is possible within 24–48 hours. Neither is guaranteed; both are realistic when the pieces are in place.

What makes a fast settlement possible:

• a clean title search with ownership matching the borrowers (or a trust deed and company documents ready if a trust or company owns it);
• an agreed valuation path early — some deals can rely on a desktop or short-form assessment, larger or unusual properties need a full inspection;
• ID, ABN or ACN details and a statement for any existing loan on the property supplied on the first day;
• a clear, written exit, so nobody has to chase the “how does this get repaid?” question later.

What slows things down is nearly always the same list in reverse: an owner’s name that doesn’t match the title, a missing trust deed, a valuer who can’t get access, or an exit that changes halfway through. Our how it works page shows the steps in order.

How much can you borrow against your property?

The amount is driven by equity — what the property is worth, less what’s already owing against it. Lenders measure this as the loan-to-value ratio (LVR), which business.gov.au describes as the ratio of a loan amount to the market value of the property behind it. For a second mortgage or caveat, we look at the combined LVR: your existing loan plus the new one, divided by the value. Location, property type and the strength of your exit all move the ceiling. The how much can I borrow tool gives you a quick, private estimate.

An illustrative example

This example uses round numbers and invented details to show how the structure is chosen. It isn’t a quote.

A joinery business owns its factory in Bendigo, valued at $1,200,000, with $500,000 still owing to its bank. It has landed a commercial fit-out contract and needs $180,000 for materials and a supplier deposit within nine days. The first progress payment is due in about four months.

• Title: a bank loan the owner wants to keep → borrow behind it.
• State: Victoria → a caveat loan is available.
• Clock: nine days to fund, repaid by the progress payment.
• Combined LVR: ($500,000 + $180,000) ÷ $1,200,000 ≈ 57%.

A short-term caveat loan of $180,000 over the factory fits neatly. If the same factory were in Toowoomba or Wagga Wagga, the answer would be a short-term registered second mortgage instead — same amount, same exit, similar timing.

What do short-term lenders actually look at?

In rough order of weight:

1. The property — value, location, type and what’s already owing.
2. The exit — what money repays the loan, and when. A signed sale contract or a bank’s conditional approval is gold.
3. The story — what the funds are for and why the timing is tight.
4. Your history — credit file, tax position, existing debts.

History comes last for a reason. Bad credit and ATO debt are considered case by case. Clearing a tax debt is a very common reason to look at short-term money in the first place — the ATO can report business tax debts to credit reporting bureaus where at least $100,000 is overdue by more than 90 days and the business isn’t engaging with it, after 28 days’ written notice. Getting ahead of that is often worth more than the cost of the loan. Our page on ATO tax debt loans covers that situation in detail.

Ready to find out which structure fits you?

You now know the three questions that matter: where the property sits on title, which state it’s in, and when the money comes back. Give us those answers and we can usually tell you on the first call which short-term structure suits and how quickly it could move.

The enquiry takes about 60 seconds, and there’s no credit check when you first enquire. Your details stay with us — you’re dealing with the lender, not an introducer — rather than being fired off to a list of other lenders, so your phone won’t light up with strangers. A real person reads your situation and calls you back. Please fill the form in accurately — especially the property address, the state it’s in and your deadline — because those three answers decide which option we put to you first.

Check my short-term options →