Business loans for medical and health practices
HomeSec lends to general practices, dental, allied health and veterinary businesses against equity in real property, from $20,000 to $5,000,000. No financial statements, no valuation and no serviceability test, funded in as little as 24 hours — useful when a practice's value sits in its patients rather than in assets.
See if you qualify in sixty seconds. No credit check to apply, no financials, no payments for the first six months. That's the HomeSec Advantage.
See if you qualifyThe cash cycle you are actually borrowing against
A health practice's income is reliable and slow. Medicare and private health benefits are received after the service, insurers and compensable schemes pay on their own timetables, and patient accounts sit in a ledger. Against that, the practice pays its clinicians — often the largest cost by far, and often a percentage of billings paid whether or not the payer has settled — plus nurses, reception and rent, every fortnight.
Equipment is the other defining cost. Chairs, imaging, sterilisation, diagnostic and surgical equipment are expensive, regulated and not optional: a failed autoclave or a broken chair closes a room, and a closed room is lost billings for as long as it takes. Replacement cycles are long enough that several items can fall due together.
And practices change hands in a way that needs cash at a fixed date. An associate buying in, a retiring principal being paid out, or a practice being acquired all complete on a day agreed in a contract, and the value being bought is goodwill and a patient base — precisely what a lender will not take security over.
What makes the phone ring
| The event | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| An associate buy-in or a principal's exit | A completion date set by an agreement, and a bank that cannot meet it. |
| Acquiring a practice or a patient list | Goodwill that no lender will secure against, bought with money secured against property instead. |
| Equipment failure or replacement | A chair, an autoclave, an imaging unit or a surgical item that closes a room until it is replaced. |
| Fit-out, expansion or a second site | Consulting rooms, compliance works, or a new location taken on a lease. |
| A tax bill on a strong year | Assessed on last year's billings, payable out of this year's cash. |
| A billing or payer disruption | A change in payer arrangements, an audit, or a delay in receipting that leaves the payroll unchanged. |
What you can offer as security
Most practices lease their rooms, so the security is usually a principal's home or investment property, assessed to 80% of value, with the company or trust as borrower. That is the standard structure and it is straightforward.
Where the practice owns its premises — a suite, a converted house, a purpose-built centre — that is commercial security assessed to 70% of value, and it will usually carry the amount on its own as a first or second mortgage.
Goodwill, a patient list, the fee stream and equipment already under finance are not security here. Specialist medical financiers do lend against those, and where that route works it may suit you better; where it is too slow for the completion date, this is the alternative.
How much you can borrow
Take the property's value, multiply by 80% for residential security or 70% for commercial, and subtract what is already owing on it. What is left is roughly what is available, between $20,000 and $5,000,000. Several properties can be added together, and the borrower does not have to be the owner — companies, trusts and sole traders — including start-ups, with everyone on title signing. Up to 80% on residential and 70% on commercial. Lower on large acreage, and LVRs may reduce on properties worth less than $800,000.
Why the bank is slow here, and we are not
Banks compete hard for health practices and price them well, so for a planned acquisition with clean financials and time to spare a bank is often the better answer, and we will say so. The mismatch is timing: a buy-in completes on a date, and a bank's process is weeks plus a valuation.
A practice that has recently changed structure, taken on a lease, or had a year affected by a principal's absence also presents the variance a serviceability model reads worst, even though nothing about the underlying business has changed.
We do not run that assessment. The property and the exit carry the file, and the exit is frequently the bank facility completing a few weeks later — we bridge to it rather than replace it.
What the money is used for
- Funding a buy-in or buy-out to a fixed date. Completion on the day the agreement says, refinanced afterwards if that suits.
- Acquiring a practice or patient list. Against property, because goodwill is not security.
- Equipment replacement. A room back in service this week rather than next month.
- Fit-out and expansion. Rooms, compliance works or a second site.
- Clearing a tax debt. Paid direct to the ATO from settlement.
- Buying the rooms. A first mortgage over the commercial premises the practice occupies.
From the call to the money
Tell us the deal
Amount, purpose, timing, the property and how the loan gets repaid. A Lending Manager gives you an indicative answer on that call — usually in minutes.
Minutes
Conditional approval
Photo ID, a rates notice and your most recent mortgage statement. That is the whole list, and it takes about fifteen minutes.
About 15 minutes
Funds released
As little as 24 hours from a clean, complete scenario. Paid where you tell us — to your account, or straight to the ATO.
As little as 24 hours
What it costs
Priced per file, on the property, the position, the amount and the exit. No rate is published, because a rate with "from" in front of it is the best file's number. How it is priced, and every fee that exists.
Questions we get from this industry
Can I borrow to buy into a practice?
Do you lend against goodwill or a patient list?
We lease our rooms. Can we still borrow?
Is this regulated consumer credit if the security is my home?
Do you need our billings, financials or tax returns?
How quickly can equipment be replaced?
Do you lend to veterinary and allied health practices?
Can we repay it as soon as our bank finance completes?
Not a call centre. Tell us the property, the amount and what the money is for, and you will have an indicative answer on the call. 1300 93 83 87, Mon–Fri, 8:30am – 5:30pm Melbourne time.
The assessment is the same in every one of them: property, purpose and exit.
See if you qualify in sixty seconds
Three short questions, no credit check to apply and no financial statements. A Lending Manager reads it and calls you back with a real answer — not a call centre, not an algorithm.
That's the HomeSec Advantage.
Reviewed by Jason Brockmuller, Joint Chief Executive