Business loans for tradies and contractors
HomeSec lends to electrical, plumbing, HVAC, civil and specialist trade businesses against equity in real property — a home, an investment property or a yard. From $20,000 to $5,000,000, with no financial statements, no valuation and funding in as little as 24 hours, which suits a trade paid in arrears and spending in advance.
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 trade business pays before it is paid, and the gap is structural rather than a sign of anything going wrong. Wages go out weekly. Materials are bought at the start of a job and often on the supplier's 30-day account. The invoice goes out at the end of the month the work was done, the builder or principal contractor approves it in the following month, and the money lands 30, 45 or 60 days after that. On a job of any size the business has funded four to ten weeks of labour and materials before a cent comes back.
Growth makes that worse rather than better. Winning a bigger contract means a bigger float, so the most dangerous month in a trade business is usually the one straight after the best news it has had all year. That is the single most common reason a profitable electrical or plumbing company runs out of money, and it is not something a profit and loss statement shows.
On top of it sit the things that arrive as lump sums: annual insurance renewals, licence and registration fees, vehicle rego, the tax bill on a good year that lands during a slow quarter, and retention held against completed work that is released months or years later. Each is predictable. None of them lines up with the month the money comes in.
What makes the phone ring
| The event | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| A progress claim certified and not paid | The work is done, the claim is approved, and the head contractor has not paid. Wages are still due on Thursday. This is the most common single reason a trade business calls us. |
| A contract won that has to be funded first | Materials, labour and plant for eight weeks before the first claim is even lodged. The contract is good; the timing is the problem. |
| Plant or a vehicle down | An excavator, a ute, a crane truck or a specialist rig out of action stops the crew, not just the machine. Repair or replacement cannot wait for a finance approval. |
| An ATO balance that has grown quietly | PAYG withholding and GST accumulate on money that was never really in the account, and a trade business often finds out how large the balance is only when the ATO writes. |
| A head contractor in trouble | When the principal above you fails, the money owed may never arrive. The business still has to pay its own people and its own suppliers while it works out what is recoverable. |
| Retention released late, or not at all | Money the business has already earned, sitting in someone else's account, sometimes for the whole defects liability period. |
What you can offer as security
Most trade business owners have equity somewhere in real property even when the business itself owns very little: the family home, an investment property bought in better years, a yard or shed the business trades out of, or vacant land held for a future build. Any of those can carry a loan here, first or second mortgage, and several can be combined to reach the amount.
What the business owns — vehicles, tools, plant, a debtors ledger — is not what we lend against, and that difference matters. Equipment financiers and invoice funders already have security over most of it, and a business that has drawn on both has usually run out of room. Real property is the one asset those facilities have not touched.
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
A bank reads two years of accounts and asks whether they will repeat. For a trade business those two years rarely look the same as each other — one big job, one quiet year, a bad debt written off when a builder went under — and the assessment stalls on explaining the variance rather than on whether the loan can be repaid.
It also wants the tax lodgements current, which a business in the middle of a cash squeeze often is not, and it counts an existing equipment finance book against serviceability whether or not those assets are earning.
None of that tells anyone whether the money will come back. What tells you that is the equity in the property and the event that repays the loan — the claim being paid, the retention released, the season turning. That is what we assess.
What the money is used for
- Bridging a certified claim. Borrow against the property, get the crew paid, repay when the claim clears.
- Funding a new contract. The float for materials and labour until the first progress payment lands.
- Plant and vehicle replacement. Where the equipment financier is too slow or the asset is too old for them to touch.
- Clearing an ATO balance. Paid direct to the ATO from settlement, which stops the interest and the enforcement clock.
- Paying out a failed head contractor's damage. Covering the hole while a claim, an adjudication or an insurance recovery runs its course.
- Buying the yard. A first mortgage over commercial premises the business has been renting.
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 get a business loan as a tradie without financials?
I am a sole trader with an ABN and no company. Can I still borrow?
The property is in my name, not the business's name. Does that work?
What if my tax returns are not lodged?
I have equipment finance on everything. Does that count against me?
How fast can it settle if I need to pay wages Thursday?
Can I borrow against a property my business rents from my own trust?
Do you lend to trades in regional areas?
What happens if the claim I am waiting on is disputed?
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 Matt Hempel, National Credit Manager