Private lenders in Sydney, and what changes when the security is in New South Wales
HomeSec has lent its own money against Australian real property since 2004, and New South Wales security is a large part of that book. Loans from $20,000 to $5,000,000 are taken by first mortgage, second mortgage or caveat over NSW real estate, assessed on equity, business purpose and the exit rather than on trading or a credit score.
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 actually read, and why we will not pretend otherwise
A great many of the lenders that rank for this phrase are not in Sydney either. They are brokerages with a Sydney landline, or funds whose credit sits in another state behind a New South Wales page. We are in the same position and we would rather put it at the top than bury it: (02) 9011 6061 is a Sydney 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 (02) 9011 6061 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. New South Wales files are documented and settled with solicitors who practise here and lodge here, electronically, against the register that NSW Land Registry Services keeps for the Registrar-General. From a clean, complete scenario funds can be available in as little as 24 hours.
What genuinely differs about a New South Wales 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 Sydney and one in Newcastle involve identical mechanics; a caveat loan in New South Wales and one in Victoria do not, and the differences are the sort that decide whether a deadline is met.
| New South Wales | What it means for your file |
|---|---|
| The Registrar-General holds the register, through NSW Land Registry Services | Titles, dealings, caveats and writs are recorded there, electronically in the ordinary case. Your solicitor or conveyancer deals with it daily. |
| Caveats sit under the Real Property Act 1900 | A different Act from Victoria's, with its own removal machinery — the next three rows are the parts that catch people out. |
| The clock is 21 days, and it has two hands | Under section 74J, the caveator must both obtain an order of the Supreme Court extending the caveat and lodge that order with the Registrar-General before 21 days from service expire. Getting the court date is not enough on its own, and that is the trap: the lodgement is a second act with the same deadline. |
| No lawyer has to certify the application | The registered proprietor applies in the approved form, and the section asks for nothing more. In Victoria the equivalent application must carry a certificate signed by a legal practitioner in that state, which makes a Victorian removal a legal engagement before it is anything else. A New South Wales removal is cheaper and quicker to start — and then slower to be sure of, because of the row below. |
| The applicant has a deadline too — four weeks | Evidence of service on the caveator must be lodged within four weeks of the notice being issued, or the Registrar-General may refuse to take the matter any further. The owner who serves a lapsing notice and then waits has lost nothing except the only thing that was moving. |
| The caveat lapses on a recording, not on a date | It comes off when the Registrar-General makes the recording in the Register, which is why "the 21 days are up" and "the title is clear" are two different days. Plan settlement on the second one. |
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 title that you did not agree to — and if there is, it is the reason to get a title search before you plan anything. Our guide on what a caveat actually is covers the rest.
A judgment on a New South Wales title, which is its own question
New South Wales has a piece of machinery that catches more business borrowers than the caveat rules do, and almost nobody knows about it until a title search comes back. A judgment debt on its own changes nothing about the land: a writ, recorded or not, creates no interest in it. What changes things is the writ being recorded in the Register.
- Recording starts a six-month clock. The protected period runs from the recording and ends six months later, or when the writ expires, whichever comes first.
- During it, a new dealing is not registered unless the writ is named in it as a prior encumbrance. That is what stops a new mortgage going on, and it is why a file can look fundable on equity and still not settle.
- There is an express way through. A mortgage given by the judgment debtor may still be registered where it is in registrable form and endorsed with the consent given under section 113(6)(b) of the Civil Procedure Act 2005.
- An existing first mortgagee is untouched. A dealing by a mortgagee exercising powers under a mortgage recorded before the writ falls outside the rule entirely.
- And it ends. Where the protected period passes without the land being sold under the writ, a dealing lodged before any such execution may be registered despite the recording.
This is the single most useful thing to know before ringing anyone about a New South Wales property with a judgment behind it, because it turns "can I borrow" into two checkable questions: is there a writ recorded, and when was it recorded. 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 Sydney business owners actually ring about
The Sydney search traffic for private lending is dominated by four things, and they are the four we write most of in this state.
- Private lending against property, with the bank left alone. The largest group by some 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.
- 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: waiting one to two weeks for a bank to issue consent is not an option when a New South Wales settlement is on Friday. Caveat loans for business.
- Bridging a settlement. Sydney searches for bridging finance more than any other capital on this site's numbers, which fits a market where people routinely commit to the next property before the last one is unconditional. Bridging a property settlement.
- Second mortgages behind a bank that will not increase the limit. Usually because the increase is tested across the whole facility rather than against the equity. How a second mortgage works.
Sydney and the rest of New South Wales
Sydney metropolitan security is the bulk of the New South Wales book, and the rest of the state is ordinary business rather than an exception — the Hunter and Newcastle, the Central Coast, the Illawarra and Wollongong, the Southern Highlands, Bathurst and Orange, the Riverina, the Northern Rivers and the far west. The mechanics do not change, because the same Act sets them. What changes on a regional 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. More on where we lend.
Ringing the Sydney number
(02) 9011 6061 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 New South Wales land titles procedure in general terms and is not legal advice. Section 74J and sections 105 and 105A of the Real Property Act 1900 are the primary sources behind the two lists above; 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.
Sydney questions
Who are the private lenders in Sydney?
Do you have a Sydney office?
How long does it take to remove a caveat in New South Wales?
There is a judgment against the company. Can I still borrow against a New South Wales property?
Can I get a second mortgage in Sydney without my bank's consent?
Do you lend outside Sydney in regional New South Wales?
What do you actually assess on a Sydney 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