01 Private to bank
Refinancing out of private or non-bank debt once the project is de-risked, complete or leased. Priced and timed against the bank’s conditions, not the exit date you hoped for.
When it makes sense
Most commercial refinances start with a date, not a rate.
An interest-only period ending. A facility maturing. A construction loan due to roll. A lender that has quietly stopped writing your asset class. The trigger is usually a deadline, and the deadline is usually closer than it should be.
Refinancing well means knowing which lenders are active for that asset today, what they will accept on valuation, and how long they actually take. That is a different question from what rate is advertised.
Situations
The moves that need more than a new rate.
02 Caveat and second mortgage
Refinancing high-cost short-term facilities into a senior position. Usually a timing and valuation problem before it is a pricing one.
03 Lender exit
Your lender has left the asset class or the market. The facility is performing; the appetite has gone.
04 Expiring interest-only
The IO period ends and the amortising repayment does not suit the asset. Restructure, extend, or move.
05 Deadline pressure
The current lender has set a date. What is achievable narrows quickly, and knowing which lenders can genuinely move is most of the answer.
06 Group and intercompany debt
Multiple entities, intercompany loans, cross guarantees. Simplifying the structure without triggering a refinance you did not intend.
Structure
Sometimes the facility is fine and the structure is wrong.
Cross-collateralised securities that trap equity. A business loan secured against the family home. A syndicated facility that would be simpler as bilateral lines. Assets that would each borrow better standing alone.
Refinancing is the mechanism. The outcome is a structure where each asset carries its own debt on its own merits, and where selling one thing does not require the consent of everyone lending against everything else.
What lenders check
A refinance is assessed as a new deal.
Figures are illustrative and subject to lender assessment.
01 Current valuation
The number that matters is today’s, not the one at settlement. A valuation move is the most common reason a borderline refinance stalls.
02 LVR against that valuation
Up to 80% for an investment property; up to 100% for owner-occupiers with the right structure.
03 Servicing
Interest cover and debt service, tested on current rates and the incoming facility, not the outgoing one.
04 Conduct
Arrears, covenant breaches, and how the existing facility has run. Clean conduct is worth more than most borrowers expect.
05 Exit or term
Where the facility goes next. A refinance without an answer to that is a harder credit paper.
How we work
We structure the exit before we approach a lender.
01 Read the current facility
Terms, expiry, break costs, covenants, security. What is actually binding, and by when.
02 Set the target structure
What the debt should look like afterwards, and which lender types can hold it.
03 Approach a focused group
Not a panel blast. Two or three lenders with real appetite for that asset.
04 Manage to settlement
Valuation, conditions, discharge and timing with the outgoing lender.
We are mandated as your adviser, not paid to place you with a particular lender. If refinancing is not in your interest, we will say so.
How we work
One person runs your file, and coordinates everyone on it.
Most finance goes quiet at the worst time. This is how ours runs instead.
01 Senior-led, every file
The principal who structures your deal runs it through to settlement. No handover to a junior once the credit paper is written.
02 We coordinate every party
Valuer, quantity surveyor, solicitor and lender. You are not the go-between, and you are not chasing four people for the same answer.
03 Plain English, not jargon
We explain how a structure works, and what it costs you, in language you can act on. A commercial facility is complicated; the explanation of it should not be.
04 Progress you can see
You hear from us at every milestone, and whenever a lender comes back. No chasing us for a status update.
05 First reply within 24 hours
On any enquiry, and the same commitment published beside every enquiry form on the site.
06 A straight answer early
If we are not a fit, you will hear it quickly rather than after four weeks of process.
None of this makes a lender move faster. It means you always know where the deal is, and you are not the one holding it together.