Property-backed funding for business owners, self-employed operators and property investors. Dozens of specialist private lenders. Most deals settle in 7–14 days.
Most of the people who come to us for private lending are running real businesses, doing real deals, with genuinely strong positions — they just need finance that moves at the speed of the opportunity. A trade business that's won a big contract and needs working capital before invoices land. A self-employed operator with strong equity in their home but a tax position that doesn't fit the standard bank model. A developer who needs to settle on a property in 14 days, not eight weeks. A business owner cleaning up an unexpected ATO bill before it gets in the way.
The deal stacks up. The bank is just too slow or too rigid to back it. That's where we come in. We've built relationships with dozens of private lenders across Australia — each with their own appetite, speed, and pricing — and we know which one to take your deal to.
Main bank said no inside a week. Pilbara Finance had us settled with a private lender in nine business days — contract started on schedule.
Three things this kind of finance does that standard lending genuinely can't.
A standard commercial loan takes 6–8 weeks. A standard business loan can be 2–4. A well-structured private loan can settle in 7–14 days — sometimes faster. When the auction is Saturday, the contract settles in 10 days, or your supplier needs paying before the next progress claim, that speed is the entire point. We move fast because we know exactly which lenders move fast.
Most of the deals we structure here are secured against property — your home, an investment property, your commercial premises, or sometimes a combination. That equity is what makes the deal possible. It means private lenders can focus on the strength of the security and the exit plan rather than picking apart your last two years of tax returns. If you've got equity and a clear path forward, there's almost always a way.
Some clients need 6 months of breathing room while a contract delivers and the cash flow normalises. Others need a 2-year facility while a property is renovated, leased, and refinanced. A few need long-term funding the bank simply won't write. We structure each deal to its actual purpose — including the exit plan from day one, so you know how it ends before it begins.
Private lenders are not interchangeable. We've built relationships with dozens of specialists across Australia — each with their own appetite, speed and pricing — and we know exactly which one to take your deal to.
Three sharp steps. We move at the pace your situation actually needs.
A 15-minute conversation. Tell us what you need the money for, how much, your timeline, and what property equity or other security is on the table. We'll come back fast — usually same day — with a clear read on whether private lending is the right tool, what it would realistically cost, and which of our specialist lenders we'd take it to. No commitment, no credit checks at this stage.
Private lenders are not interchangeable. Some price aggressively for clean property security and a clear exit. Others are more flexible on the borrower's circumstances but charge for the comfort. Some move in days, others in weeks. We know exactly who we're dealing with on each deal — their appetite, their timeline, their pricing — and we shop your situation to the lender best positioned to fund it cleanly. You see two or three real options side by side.
Once you've picked the option, we package the deal properly, coordinate the valuation, work alongside your solicitor, and get to settlement. Most private deals settle in 7–14 days from formal application. From day one we're already mapping the exit — usually a refinance back to standard commercial lending once the situation has stabilised. Private lending is a tool, not a destination. We make sure you get out of it cleanly when the time comes.
Tell us the loan, the security, the term and how you'll service it. We'll show your total cost of funds, what's left after fees, and how the three security types stack up.
Purpose tile shapes lender appetite. Loan amount drives establishment fees and total interest.
Security type drives the rate band and the LVR cap. 1st mortgage on residential is sharpest; caveat is fastest but priciest.
Term is critical — every month adds material interest. Capitalised means you pay nothing monthly but the balance grows.
Capitalised means no monthly outflow — interest is added to the balance. Common for development bridging where you don't have cash flow yet. Paid monthly avoids compounding but you need the cash to service.
Auto-snaps to the indicative band for your security type. Override if your file is stronger or weaker than typical.
Indicative bands: 1st mortgage 8.99–11%, 2nd mortgage 11–13%, caveat 13–16%. Plus an establishment fee (typically 2–3%) and a discharge fee (~$1,500). All baked into the total cost figure.
Interest-only at the chosen rate. Establishment fee deducted from advance; discharge fee paid at end. Real quotes will include valuation and legal disbursements.
Same loan amount, same term — different rate band, different establishment fee, different LVR cap. 1st mortgage is sharpest if you can offer it; caveat is the fastest path but the most expensive money in the room.
Have a quick chat with a Pilbara Finance broker. We'll match your scenario to the right private lender, structure the security to keep the rate sharp, and have indicative terms in your hands inside a few business days.
Estimates only. This calculator does not assess credit and is not a credit offer. Indicative rates and fees reflect typical mid-2026 private lending bands by security type — actual terms vary widely by lender, asset class, location, and the strength of your exit. Establishment fees modelled at 2.0% (1st), 2.5% (2nd), 3.0% (caveat) of loan; discharge fee assumed $1,500. Capitalised interest compounds monthly. Pilbara Equities Pty Ltd, CRN 478535, of Mortgage Specialists Pty Ltd, ACL 387025.
Private lending is fast and flexible. It's also not the cheapest money in the room. Here's what actually matters when you're deciding.
Private lending pricing reflects the speed and flexibility you're paying for. Rates typically sit anywhere from around 8% to 15% per year, with establishment fees usually 2–5% of the loan amount. Sounds steep next to a standard commercial rate — and it is — but the right way to look at it isn't the rate alone. It's the total cost over the time you actually need the money.
Borrowing $400,000 at 10.5% for 9 months costs about $32,000 in interest plus an establishment fee. If that lets you secure a $1.5M contract, settle a property purchase that doubles in value, or clear an ATO bill before it strangles your trading, the maths usually stacks up cleanly. We always show you the full cost projection upfront — not just the headline number.
Every private loan needs a clear exit — the way the loan gets paid out at the end of the term. The most common exits are: refinance to a standard commercial or home loan once trading or position has stabilised; sale of the property the loan was secured against; or pay-down from contract proceeds, business cash flow, or another expected event.
We structure the exit at the start, not as an afterthought. If the exit plan doesn't add up, the deal doesn't go ahead — we'd rather tell you that on day one than have you stuck on a private loan with no clean way out.
Most of what we do in this space is secured against real estate — your home, an investment property, or commercial premises you own. Private lenders look at the equity in those properties, the strength of the property as security, and the exit plan, then price the deal accordingly.
Strong equity (typically loan-to-value ratios under 70%) opens up the sharpest pricing and the most lender competition. Tighter equity is still workable but the pricing reflects the additional risk to the lender. We'll calculate your usable equity on the first call so you know exactly what's available.
The fastest private deals we structure settle inside 7 working days from the first conversation. That's full credit assessment, valuation, legal documentation, and money in your account — not just an indicative approval.
The trick is preparation: knowing exactly what each lender wants to see, having the property valuation lined up, and packaging the deal cleanly so the lender's credit team can say yes the moment it lands on their desk. We do this often enough that the process is well-worn. If your deal genuinely has to settle next week, tell us upfront — we'll match it to a lender who can deliver.
A lot of self-employed business owners earn very well but show modest taxable income because of legitimate business deductions, restructures, or the way their accountant has structured the group. Banks read those tax returns and tighten up.
Private lenders care about something different: the strength of the property as security, the equity position, and how the loan is going to be repaid. If you've got equity in property and a clear repayment plan, your tax return doesn't drive the decision the way it does at a bank. This is one of the most common scenarios we structure private lending for, and it's one of the cleanest fits for the product.
A new lending rule introduced in February 2026 caps how many high debt-to-income loans the major banks can write — meaning even good borrowers with strong assets and healthy cash flow are getting bumped from bank pipelines. Property investors with multi-asset portfolios are feeling it most. Self-employed business owners with property equity behind them are seeing it on standard refinances they would have walked through two years ago.
Private lending is increasingly the right answer for these clients — not because the bank is wrong, but because the bank's allocation is full and your deal needs to happen this quarter, not next year. We're seeing more of these scenarios every week and we know exactly how to structure them.
How we got Daniel's commercial fitout business across the line on a contract that would have walked otherwise.
Daniel runs a commercial fitout business in Joondalup with twelve employees. He'd just won a tender to fit out three new dental practices for a private hospital group — total contract value around $1.6 million across nine months. To start the job, he needed working capital for materials, mobilising staff, and locking in subcontractors. Required: $480,000. His main bank had banked him for six years and turned him down inside a week — the recent jump in turnover from winning bigger contracts was flagged as "volatility".
Daniel had around $740,000 of usable equity in his Joondalup home. We had a 20-minute call on Monday afternoon. By Friday we'd matched the deal to a private lender we knew was actively pricing trade business deals secured against family-home equity, structured a 12-month interest-only facility at 9.5% with a 2.5% establishment fee, and settled it the following Wednesday. The contract started on schedule. By month seven Daniel was running cash-positive on the new contract and had won two more. We refinanced the private loan into a standard commercial facility at month 11. Total cost across the 11 months landed around $52,000 — the contracts that wouldn't have happened without that finance: significantly more.
Composite scenario built from multiple real Pilbara Finance trades business owner transactions. Names, locations and identifying details are illustrative; the timeline, structure and pricing reflect the kind of outcomes our specialist private lending panel produces in 2026.
The questions that come up on every private lending conversation.
Real reviews from real Google. No curated screenshots, no cherry-picked quotes.
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Send us a quick rundown of what you're trying to fund, your timeframe, and the rough property security available. We'll come back inside a business day.
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Tell us the situation — what you're funding, how fast you need it, and the rough property security on the table. We'll come back inside a business day with a clear read on whether we can fund it, the structure we'd use, the all-in cost, and how fast we could get it across the line. If private lending isn't the right tool, we'll tell you what is.
"Settled in nine days when our bank said weeks. Saved the contract."
Long-term funding for property purchase, construction, and refinance — secured against commercial real estate.
Learn moreWorking capital, equipment, expansion or restructuring — finance built around how your business actually operates.
Learn moreShort-term finance to bridge the gap between buying and selling — settle the new place before the old one settles.
Learn more
We source finance across major banks, specialist non-banks and private lenders, then lay out the options in plain English — including rates, fees, security requirements and the exit plan — so you can make a confident decision.
If your deal doesn’t fit standard bank policy (or the bank process is simply too slow), we’ll tell you quickly whether a specialist or private solution is realistic — and what it would take to make it work.