Private lenders in Brisbane, and what changes when the security is in Queensland
HomeSec has lent its own money against Australian real property since 2004, and Queensland security is a routine part of that book. Loans from $20,000 to $5,000,000 are taken by first mortgage, second mortgage or caveat over Queensland real estate, assessed on equity, business purpose and the exit rather than on trading figures.
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 qualifyWhere your file is read, and the Brisbane number that reaches it
A great many of the lenders ranking for this phrase are not in Brisbane either. They are brokerages with a Queensland landline, or funds whose credit sits in another state behind a Brisbane page. We are in the same position and would rather put it at the top than bury it: (07) 3333 2120 is a Queensland number, and it reaches a credit team in Melbourne.
What matters is not the address on the letterhead but how many hands your file passes through before somebody can say yes. Here it passes through none. The money is ours, so nothing is referred to a funder; there is no branch, so there is nothing to refer it to. The person who answers (07) 3333 2120 is in the room where the decision gets made, and will give you an indicative answer on that first call — including a no, with the reason, which is worth more than a fortnight of being managed. We have been lending against Australian real property since 2004, which makes this one of the country's oldest private business lenders.
The settlement itself is local in the way that counts. Queensland files are documented and settled with solicitors who practise here and lodge here, electronically, in the freehold land register that Titles Queensland operates. From a clean, complete scenario funds can be available in as little as 24 hours.
What genuinely differs about a Queensland security
Most of what is written about caveat loans and second mortgages reads as though Australia had one land system. It has eight. A caveat loan in Brisbane and one in Cairns involve identical mechanics; a caveat loan in Queensland and one in New South Wales do not, and Queensland is not a variation on the others — it is a different design. The single biggest difference is this: in Queensland a caveat has an expiry date built into it, and nobody has to do anything to start the clock.
| Queensland | What it means for your file |
|---|---|
| Caveats sit under the Land Title Act 1994 | A different Act from the Real Property Act 1900 in New South Wales and the Transfer of Land Act 1958 in Victoria, with removal machinery that works the other way round. The register itself is the freehold land register, operated by Titles Queensland, and the officer the Act names for every step below is the registrar. |
| A caveat expires on its own at three months | Under section 126 a caveator who does not want the caveat to lapse must start a proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction within three months of lodgement and notify the registrar of that proceeding by depositing an instrument. Do neither and the caveat lapses. No equivalent exists in New South Wales or Victoria, where a caveat sits on the title until the owner moves against it. |
| Three months becomes 14 days the moment the owner serves a notice | The caveatee may serve a notice requiring the caveator to start a proceeding, and the period then runs 14 days from service. The notice comes from the owner directly — not from the registry, as in New South Wales, and not with a lapsing day fixed by the Registrar at no less than 30 days, as in Victoria. |
| The owner has a step of its own, also 14 days | Having served that notice, the caveatee must within 14 days deposit an instrument notifying the registrar of the service. Serving and then waiting achieves nothing, which is the same trap New South Wales sets with its four-week evidence deadline, set differently. |
| A consent caveat is outside the section altogether | Where the registered owner's consent, in the appropriate form, is deposited when the caveat is lodged, the lapsing section does not apply to it. That is the caveat a cooperating borrower gives a lender, and in Queensland it is the difference between security that holds and security with three months on it. |
| You get one caveat, not two | Under section 129 a further caveat by the same caveator, on the same or substantially the same grounds, can never be lodged without the leave of a court. A caveat withdrawn or lost in Queensland is not simply re-lodged, which is a reason to get the first one right. |
| A caveat does not stop the first mortgagee | Section 124 prevents registration of instruments affecting the lot from the time of lodgement — but not an instrument executed by a mortgagee registered before the caveat, exercising a power under its mortgage, where the caveator claims security for money. A caveat behind a bank does not freeze the bank. |
None of that applies to a caveat HomeSec lodges for a loan that is being repaid. That one comes off by withdrawal on the day the payout is received, usually electronically and usually the same day. The machinery above is what matters when there is a caveat on your Queensland title that you did not agree to, or when a loan is being written against one — and if either is true, a title search comes before any planning. Our guide on what a caveat actually is covers the rest, and the New South Wales page sets out that state's version for anyone holding security in both.
A judgment on a Queensland title, which is its own question
A judgment debt on its own changes nothing about the land. What changes things is a writ of execution being registered, and Queensland puts a limit on what that registration is worth which is worth knowing before you ring anybody.
- Until it is registered, it binds nothing. For purchasers, lessees, mortgagees and creditors a writ cannot bind or affect registered lots until registered — whether or not there was actual or constructive notice of it.
- Once registered, it binds only if it is put to work within six months. A registered writ binds or affects registered lots only if it is executed and put in force within six months of its lodgement, or within the extended time a court allows where the writ is filed and the registrar notified.
- So the two questions are mechanical. Is a writ registered against this title, and when was it lodged. A title search answers both in a morning, and the answer is far more often workable than people expect.
- It is a different design from New South Wales. There, a recorded writ starts a six-month protected period during which a new dealing is not registered unless the writ is named in it as a prior encumbrance. Queensland does not work that way, so advice written for one state should not be applied to the other.
Our page on bad credit caveat loans sets out what a caveat lender checks and in what order, and bad credit business loans covers the credit file itself.
What Brisbane business owners actually ring about
The Brisbane search traffic has a different shape from Sydney's and Melbourne's, and it is worth saying what it is: here the question is mostly who will lend at all, rather than which product. Speed is the second note, and it is the largest single thing people name.
- Private lending against property, with the bank left alone. The dominant intent in this city by a distance. The existing loan stays exactly as it is — same rate, same term, nothing refinanced, no break costs — and what decides the amount is the equity above what the bank is owed. What a private lender actually is.
- A business loan, fast, where the bank has run out of time or patience. From a clean, complete scenario funds can be available in as little as 24 hours, and the reason is structural rather than promotional: no funder to refer to, no valuation to wait on, and a person reading the file the day it arrives. How the speed actually works.
- Caveat loans, usually against a date. A caveat does not need the first mortgagee's consent, and that is the entire reason the product exists. In Queensland it also carries the three-month clock above, which is why the term and the exit get settled at the start. Caveat loans for business.
- Bridging a settlement, and second mortgages behind a bank that will not increase the limit. Smaller intents here than in Sydney or Melbourne, but the same files. Bridging a property settlement and how a second mortgage works.
Brisbane and the rest of Queensland
Brisbane metropolitan security is the bulk of the Queensland book, and the rest of the state is ordinary business rather than an exception — Ipswich and the western corridor, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and Gladstone, Rockhampton and Mackay, Townsville and Cairns. The mechanics do not change anywhere in the state, because the same Act sets them. What changes on a regional or far-north security is the LVR on larger holdings and in very small markets, and the reason is always the same one: how long the property would take to sell. We will give you the figure for your property on the first call rather than a blanket number. The Gold Coast has a local number of its own, listed with the others on where we lend.
Ringing the Brisbane number
(07) 3333 2120 reaches the same credit team as the national line, which is the point rather than a disclaimer: one team, one set of files, nobody waiting on a branch to call head office back. Have the property's rough value to hand, what is owing on it and to whom, the purpose and the exit, and you will get an indicative answer on that call — usually in minutes. If there is a writ or a caveat already on the title, say so at the start rather than at settlement; it is nearly always workable, and it is only fatal when it is discovered late.
This page describes Queensland land titles procedure in general terms and is not legal advice. Sections 117, 124, 126 and 129 of the Land Title Act 1994 are the primary sources behind the two lists above, read in the reprint current from 1 August 2025; what applies to your title is a question for your solicitor or conveyancer. Credit provided for those purposes is not regulated under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (the NCCP Act), and the protections available to consumer borrowers do not apply. Every application is subject to assessment and approval.
Brisbane questions
Who are the private lenders in Brisbane?
Do you have a Brisbane office?
How long does a caveat last in Queensland?
Can I get a second mortgage in Brisbane without my bank's consent?
There is a judgment against the company. Can I still borrow against a Queensland property?
Do you lend outside Brisbane in regional Queensland?
What do you actually assess on a Queensland file?
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 Paul Stone, Joint Chief Executive