Commercial property loans for Australian brokers

Which commercial securities Archer takes

Archer takes investment, owner-occupied and specialised commercial security, held as a registered mortgage over real property. The rate card is organised by security class rather than by asset class, which means the question a broker asks first, will you take this building, is answered on the file rather than by a list.

• Investment commercial. Tenanted property held for income, assessed on the lease profile as well as the value.
• Owner-occupied commercial. The premises the borrower's own business trades from, which is the shape of the settled file further down this page.
• Specialised commercial. Considered where there are comparable sales to value against. Specialty security with no comparables is a referral to credit rather than a decline.

Two boundaries are published and worth stating plainly. Rural and agricultural security is rarely funded, and is worth a conversation before a client is put through an application. Consumer-purpose lending regulated under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act sits outside what Archer writes at all. On anything unusual, a BDM will give a position on the security before an application is lodged, which is faster than finding out at valuation.

Geography is the other filter worth applying early. Files are written nationally across NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA and ACT, with Tasmania and Northern Territory files assessed case by case where security values support it. Commercial security in a capital city or a large regional centre values cleanly and moves quickly. The further a property sits from comparable sales, the more the file turns on the valuation rather than on the credit assessment, and the earlier that is worth flagging.

What Archer lends against commercial security, and what it costs

Archer lends to 70% LVR on commercial security under standard delegation, to 75% with credit committee sign-off, and prices from 7.99% p.a. The table below is the published card in compact form. Residential and land bands are shown alongside because a commercial borrower frequently offers a residential asset as additional or alternative security.

Facilities start at $250,000 for a first mortgage and $100,000 for a second. The universal borrowing rate and the establishment fee sit on the same card, and the complete set of pricing by security and LVR is published rather than quoted on request. Formal pricing on any given file still depends on the security, the sponsor and the exit.

How fast a commercial file settles

A commercial file settles within 5 business days on a clean package, and indicative terms come back the same business day. The difference between a commercial file and a residential one is almost always the valuation, not the credit assessment.

1. 01
   Scenario in, indicative terms out

   Same business day, given a security address, a loan amount, the purpose and the exit.
2. 02
   Formal submission and credit approval

   Two to five days from submission to a letter of offer. Lease schedules and trading figures sent up front shorten this.
3. 03
   Valuation and legals

   A full independent valuation from an approved panel valuer, dated within 90 days at credit approval. Commercial valuations are the longest lead item in most files.
4. 04
   Settlement

   Within 5 business days on cleaner files. Complex files run one to three weeks.

How private commercial lending differs from a bank facility

Private commercial lending differs from a bank facility in what is being assessed, how long it takes, and how long the money is meant to stay out. Neither is better in general. They answer different questions, and a file that suits one usually does not suit the other.

The distinction that matters most to a broker is the term. A bank facility is written to be held. A private commercial facility is written to be repaid out of a specific event, which is why the exit is assessed before the loan is sized. A borrower who intends to hold the asset for a decade is a refinance candidate from the day the private facility settles, and the file should be structured on that basis rather than discovering it at expiry.

A file we settled

The file below is the most common commercial shape on the desk: a business buying the premises it already occupies, against a contracted settlement date the bank could not reach.

Where CommercialX fits

CommercialX is the branded product this page routes into, for income-producing commercial security. This page is the general answer to a commercial property loan search; the product page is where the structure, the term shape and the city coverage sit. Shorter-dated working capital files often run through Archer Edge or Archer Flex instead, depending on the use case, and the BDM will say which fits when the scenario comes in. The product detail sits on Archer CommercialX.

The questions brokers ask