Commercial lending
Commercial lending for Cairns businesses.
Premises, working capital and expansion finance, taken to multiple lenders so your business gets a negotiated deal, not a listed rate.
Who this is for
Owners tired of being a small fish at a big bank.
This is for the tradie whose business has outgrown the backyard shed and needs a real workshop. The cafe owner buying their premises instead of making the landlord rich. The tourism operator smoothing out a seasonal cash cycle that any FNQ local understands and most southern credit teams do not. The professional buying into a practice.
Commercial lending is relationship priced, which is a polite way of saying the advertised rate is a starting point and everything is negotiable. Businesses that take one offer from one bank usually pay for the convenience. Renaee's job is to make lenders compete for your deal.
How it works
Your deal, packaged properly, shopped hard.
It starts with understanding the business. What you do, how the money moves through the year, what the loan needs to achieve. Commercial applications live or die on how well the deal is packaged, so Renaee builds a proper lending proposal: financials, security, serviceability, the story that makes sense of the numbers.
That package goes to the lenders whose appetite fits your industry and deal size. Appetite is the hidden variable in commercial credit. The same application can be marginal at one lender and welcomed at another, and knowing who wants what is a broker's stock in trade.
Offers come back, Renaee compares them on rate, fees, covenants and review conditions, and negotiates the shortlist against each other. You choose, she manages the approval through to drawdown, and the facility gets reviewed yearly like every loan she writes.
What Renaee needs from you
The paperwork, in one list
- Photo ID for all directors or guarantors
- Two years of business financial statements
- Two years of business and personal tax returns
- Recent BAS statements
- Details of the property or asset being financed
- A current lease, if the loan involves tenanted premises
- Company or trust documents, if borrowing through an entity
Missing something? Bring what you have. Renaee will tell you what actually matters for your situation.
Common questions
Asked at most kitchen tables
It is different rather than harder. Lenders look at the business as much as the borrower: trading history, financials, the strength of the security. Deposits are usually larger and terms shorter than residential lending. The upside is that commercial credit teams can look at the whole picture, so a strong business case counts for something.
It depends on your cash position, your growth plans and what the repayments look like against your rent. Owning fixes your occupancy cost and builds an asset, but it also locks up capital a growing business might need. Renaee can model the repayments against your current rent so the decision is based on numbers, then you and your accountant make the call.
Yes, most commercial lending is written to companies and trusts. Lenders will usually want personal guarantees from directors, and the paperwork is heavier than a personal application. Renaee tells you exactly what the lender needs from your structure before anything is lodged.
Familiarity does not guarantee the sharpest offer, and commercial pricing is negotiated deal by deal rather than published on a rate sheet. Having a broker take your deal to several lenders creates the competitive tension that gets pricing moving. Your bank can still win the deal. They just have to earn it.
Buying vehicles or equipment instead? That is asset finance. Property in your own name is covered under investment loans. Renaee works with businesses across Cairns and the Tablelands.