Fast 2nd mortgages in Sydney, behind the bank loan you already have

HomeSec lends $20,000 to $5,000,000 to Sydney business owners on a registered second mortgage over New South Wales property. Your bank loan stays exactly where it is, there is no valuation, and from a clean, complete scenario funds can be in your account in as little as 24 hours. In NSW we settle on a second mortgage, not a caveat.

Why it is a second mortgage in Sydney

Across most of Australia we can settle a fast loan on a caveat. In New South Wales we do not: every Sydney loan we make behind an existing bank loan is a registered second mortgage. For you that changes very little in practice. The money arrives just as fast, the bank loan is not touched, and the second mortgage simply sits on the title behind it. When you repay us, the mortgage is discharged on the register and the title goes back to showing only your bank.

It also means a Sydney search for a caveat loan and a search for a second mortgage end up at the same product here: money against the equity in a New South Wales property, quickly, with the bank left alone.

What changed in NSW in October 2021, and why it helps

Until 2021 a second mortgage in New South Wales needed the first lender's cooperation to be registered at all. The bank held the paper certificate of title, or, once dealings went electronic, the "control of the right to deal", and without its consent the second mortgage could not be recorded. Waiting on that consent was the step that most often held a second mortgage up.

On 11 October 2021 New South Wales abolished both. Certificates of title stopped having any effect, the control of the right to deal went with them, and NSW Land Registry Services, which runs the register for the Registrar General under the Real Property Act 1900, now records a second mortgage without the first lender's consent. The bank is not notified by the register either.

What the reform did not change is the contract between you and your bank. Many bank mortgages say the borrower will not grant another mortgage without telling the bank or asking first. The register does not check that, but the bank can still treat it as a breach. So before settlement we look at what your first mortgage actually says and deal with it then, which is far better than finding out later.

Fast, in Sydney terms

With no certificate to chase and nothing waiting on the bank's back office, the time a Sydney second mortgage takes is mostly the time it takes to gather your documents. The steps are the same on every file:

1. The call. A Lending Manager, a real person, gives you an indicative answer, usually within 30 minutes in business hours, and tells you the reason if it is a no.
2. Conditional approval. Photo ID, a council rates notice and your latest mortgage statement. The approval sets out every cost before you commit to anything.
3. Searches and documents. You sign and return the approval with your supporting documents; we run the title and company searches and issue the loan agreements.
4. Funds in your account. Once the agreements are signed the mortgage is lodged electronically with NSW Land Registry Services and the money is paid, in as little as 24 hours from a clean, complete scenario.

One cost is set by the register, not by us: from 1 July 2026 NSW Land Registry Services charges $182.73 including GST to register a mortgage, and the same again to discharge it when the loan is repaid. It is part of the set-up costs your approval lists. For more on what makes a second mortgage quick or slow anywhere in Australia, see fast second mortgages.

Keeping your bank loan exactly as it is

The reason most Sydney owners choose a second mortgage over refinancing is that it leaves a good bank loan alone: same rate, same term, no break costs and no new application with the bank. How much we can lend comes from the equity above what is owed, so tell us on the first call if your first mortgage has a redraw or a line of credit attached. What the bank can lend under it can sit ahead of us as well as today's balance, and we would rather give you a figure on the call that holds than one that shrinks at settlement.

The term is open. There is no minimum and no maximum, no repayments for up to the first 6 months if you choose to add the interest to the loan, and you can repay early at any time without a penalty. If your refinance is delayed, you keep the loan for longer; there is no fee to extend.

What Sydney business owners use it for

Most of the Sydney second mortgages we write are against a date. An ATO payment plan that has fallen over, super that has to be paid before a director penalty notice lands, a supplier who wants paying before the next delivery, a deposit on a business or a property that will not wait for a bank, or wages through a slow month while a large invoice is outstanding. In each case the question we ask is how the loan will be repaid, whether that is the invoice, a sale, a refinance or the season turning. A clear answer to that matters more to us than the last few months of bank statements.

Ringing from Sydney

(02) 9011 6061 is a New South Wales number, and it reaches the same credit team in Melbourne as the national line. There is no Sydney branch to pass your file through, which is part of why the answer is quick. Have the property's rough value, what is owed on it and to whom, what the money is for and how it will be repaid, and you will have an indicative answer on that call. We have been lending our own money against Australian property since 2004. There are worked examples of first and second mortgages on our loan examples page, and the full explanation of how the product works is on second mortgages.

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.

Reviewed by Paul Stone, Joint Chief Executive