Waiting on a property settlement? Bridge the timing gap.

When the dates do not line up

Property transactions run on other people's timetables. The vendor wants a 30-day settlement. Your buyer wants 120 days. An auction forces an exchange on the day. A buyer asks for an extension. The result is a gap, sometimes weeks, sometimes months, where money you are owed has not arrived yet and money you owe is due now.

For business owners, these gaps show up in a few typical ways:

• Buying new business premises before the old premises have sold
• Selling a home or investment property to fund the business, with a long settlement
• Exchanging on a commercial purchase while waiting for sale proceeds from another property
• Needing business funds that a pending residential sale will eventually cover

This page covers both residential and commercial timing gaps. If you have already sold a commercial property and simply need its proceeds early, see funding before a commercial property sale settles.

Why the usual options struggle

Banks offer bridging finance mainly for home buyers, often with conditions around owner-occupation, income verification and a valuation of both properties. For a business purpose the options narrow, and the process commonly takes up to three months or more, which may be longer than the gap itself. Cash flow lenders do not lend against property sale timing at all.

How Equity Tap bridges a settlement gap

Equity Tap lends from $50k to $5m for one to twelve months, secured by a first mortgage, second mortgage or caveat over residential or commercial property anywhere in Australia. For a settlement gap, the security is usually the property you are selling, the property you are buying, another property you own, or a combination.

The exit is the settlement you are waiting for. When it completes, the proceeds repay our loan. Because the exit is fixed by contract, this is a natural fit for short-term lending. You get the money fast and only have it for the time you need. If the gap is two months, take it for two months, not a 20 to 30 year loan. Read more on business bridging loans and the property sale advance.

Which structure fits?

No repayments during the wait

Interest for up to the first six months can be prepaid or added to the loan, so there are no scheduled payments in that period. For most settlement gaps, that means no payments at all until the sale completes and repays the loan in one go. Interest is not waived. Each loan is priced on your individual circumstances, aiming for the sharpest rate available for that situation, and the full cost is shown before you proceed.

What we need

• ID for the borrowers and guarantors
• Details of each property involved and any existing mortgages
• The contract of sale (and the purchase contract if you are buying)
• Settlement dates and the amount you need
• What the funds are for, since this is business-purpose lending only

We do not need tax returns, BAS, profit and loss statements, an accountant's letter or bank statements. We do not order a valuation before approval, which saves time and cost and means you are not stuck at the property waiting for a valuer. No credit check is made at initial assessment.

First call to funds

1. Call with both settlement dates and the gap you need to cover.
2. We assess the security and the exit, often giving conditional approval on the phone.
3. A term sheet is issued in about 30 minutes once we have the scenario.
4. Documents are signed after we explain the costs and the exit.
5. Eligible loans can settle in as little as 24 hours.
6. Your sale settles and repays the loan.

For example, a dental practice owner who has bought a larger clinic on a 45-day settlement, while their current clinic is under contract on a 150-day settlement, might take a five-month loan secured over the current clinic to complete the purchase, with the old clinic's sale repaying the loan.

If the sale is delayed or not yet sold

A contract that has exchanged is a much stronger exit than a property that is only listed. If the property has not sold yet, we can still look at it, but we will want a realistic view of the price and timing, and a fallback plan. Terms run up to twelve months, so we can build in a buffer. Our guide to exit strategies sets out how we approach this, and our guide to business loan LVR explains how equity is assessed. You can also run some quick numbers with the equity calculator.

If your bank was meant to fund the purchase and pulled out, see bank finance fell through.

Brokers

Settlement timing gaps are bread-and-butter work for us. Send the scenario through our broker page and you will get a fast indicative answer from the same team that decides.

Close the gap

Apply online or call 1300 123 024. Tell us the dates and the amount, and we will tell you quickly how we can help.

Business-purpose lending only. Approval, timing and terms depend on the scenario.

Frequently asked questions

Brokers: send the scenario through the Equity Tap broker channel and you will deal with the same lending team.