Private Lender in Canberra

So much of Canberra's economy is built around the federal government and the firms that serve it: consultancies, IT and cyber suppliers, defence contractors, and the professional services that surround them. The work is solid, but the income is lumpy, arriving in milestones and progress payments that rarely match when the costs fall due. When a payment is still being processed, a contract is being mobilised, or an acquisition cannot wait, a bank credit committee is too slow. Secured Lending is a non-bank lender based in Barangaroo, Sydney, funding clients across Canberra and the ACT with property-secured loans from $250,000 to $10 million, often within 24 hours.

Contract income a bank reduces to a number

A bank runs your file through a fixed serviceability test, and the way work is actually paid in this city does not fit it well. A security-cleared contractor between contracts, a consultancy waiting on a milestone, an IT firm carrying staff ahead of a mobilisation, a sole operator with strong assets and uneven billing, all of them can look marginal on paper and stall or get declined. We weigh it differently. The property you can offer and a credible plan to repay decide the deal, which usually means a faster answer and capital when the timing actually matters.

• •Loans from $250,000 to $10 million, clean files often funded within 24 hours
• •Judged on the security and a credible exit, not a serviceability calculator or years of clean financials
• •First and second mortgages taken across Canberra and the ACT
• •Approved in-house, with no external credit committee between you and settlement
• •Rates from 9.7% p.a. over terms of 1 to 24 months
• •For business and investment purposes only, never personal or consumer credit

How we weigh a Canberra deal

Our assessment is security-led and the exit carries the most weight. A loan is only as sound as the way out of it, so we want that mapped before anything else, especially where repayment hinges on a contract payment landing.

• •The exit: how and when the loan clears, whether by sale, refinance, or a known incoming payment such as a contract milestone. This outweighs everything else
• •Security and LVR: the current value of the property and the loan written against it, generally up to 70%
• •Purpose: a genuine, lawful business or investment use for the funds
• •Title and ranking: clean title or a sound Crown lease, and whether we take first or second mortgage
• •The wider picture: the surrounding facts that make the repayment plan credible

The borrowers who call us here

We back established operators, investors, developers, and their advisers across the capital. If you hold property to offer and have a clear way to repay or refinance at the end of the term, we want to hear from you.

• •Government contractors and suppliers bridging the gap until a milestone or progress payment lands
• •Security-cleared, defence, and cyber businesses carrying staff and costs through a contract cycle
• •IT firms and consultancies needing working capital, a partner buyout, or short-term cash flow cover
• •Self-employed consultants and sole operators with strong assets but uneven income
• •Owners working through an ATO arrangement, BAS arrears, or a director penalty notice
• •Investors and developers funding a purchase, settlement, or site acquisition across the ACT
• •Borrowers a bank declined or stalled on income complexity rather than the merits of the deal

Security we lend against, leasehold included

The funds are for the business or the investment, and the property secures them. Almost all ACT land is held on a 99-year Crown lease rather than freehold, and we assess that title routinely, so leasehold is no barrier here. Our own valuers price each asset against current local evidence.

• •Residential property across the inner suburbs and the town centres, from the family home to an investment unit
• •Office, retail, and strata suites through Civic, Barton, and the district centres of Gungahlin, Belconnen, and Woden
• •Light industrial and warehouse holdings at Fyshwick, Mitchell, and Hume
• •Vacant land and development sites, DA approved or not
• •Property that already has a bank loan on it, which we sit behind as a second mortgage
• •Assets held in a company, trust, or SMSF

“A lot of the businesses that call us here are waiting on a government payment they know is coming, but the bank will not lend against a milestone and the contract will not wait. Crown lease title does not faze us either. Show us a sound property and a clear way out, and we will give you a decision the same day.”

Gino Tabila

Associate Director

Where we lend across the capital and the border

We fund clients right across the Canberra metro area: Civic and Barton at the centre, the light-industrial precincts of Fyshwick and Mitchell, and the district centres of Gungahlin, Belconnen, and Woden. We also cover Queanbeyan and the surrounding New South Wales region just over the border. If your business or your security sits in Canberra or the ACT, we can move quickly.