You are short at settlement
A settlement shortfall is a gap between the funds committed at settlement and the funds actually available on the day. HomeSec funds the difference against equity in property you already own, from $20,000 to $5,000,000, paid to your solicitor's trust account and generally settling within 24 hours. The exit is the sale or refinance that was always going to complete.
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 qualifyThis deadline is contractual, and it is the expensive kind
Most funding problems have a commercial deadline — something gets worse if you miss it. A settlement date is different. Miss it and the contract itself starts working against you, in three stages that each cost more than the last.
- Penalty interest begins accruing from the settlement date, at the rate written into the contract. It is typically several times a commercial rate, and it runs daily.
- A notice to complete makes time of the essence and sets a fresh deadline, usually short. The vendor's costs of issuing it are generally yours.
- Termination and forfeiture. If the notice expires, the vendor may terminate and the deposit is at risk — commonly 10% of the price, which dwarfs the cost of any bridging.
That escalation is the whole argument. The question is never whether short-term funding is expensive in the abstract. It is whether it is cheaper than penalty interest plus the risk to a deposit, and for a few days or weeks it almost always is. Ask your solicitor to put both numbers on paper before you decide — it usually settles the question in a minute.
How the shortfall usually happens
- The sale funding it has not settled. Two transactions were meant to line up and one moved.
- The bank is not ready. Unconditional approval is not the same as funds in a trust account, and a credit or settlement queue does not care about your date.
- The valuation came in short. The lender's advance drops, and the gap appears days before completion.
- A debtor did not pay. The money was real and it did not arrive.
- Duty, GST or adjustments were larger than modelled. Frequently the actual number.
Why a caveat fits this specific problem
Two features matter when the date is fixed and days away. A caveat over property you already own can be lodged and settled without the first mortgagee's consent — which removes the one step in a second-mortgage settlement that nobody can control and that routinely takes longer than the time you have. And we advance to your solicitor's trust account, so the funds arrive where settlement actually happens.
We do not require financial statements, tax returns, a trading history or a sworn valuation. Amounts run from $20,000 to $5,000,000, to 80% of value on residential security and 70% on commercial.
They hold the contract, the adjustment figures and the settlement booking, and they can confirm the exact shortfall in minutes. Files where the solicitor is on the first call settle materially faster than files where they are copied in afterwards, because the documents go straight to the person who has to lodge them.
The exit is the part we assess hardest
Bridging is the most straightforward category we write, and the reason is that the exit is usually already documented — an exchanged contract with a settlement date, a formal approval from an incoming lender, a certified progress claim. That is a dated, identifiable event rather than a forecast.
Where the exit is expected rather than documented, tell us that on the first call. It does not stop the loan, but it changes what we look at, and it is much better raised early than discovered at settlement. The term is open in any case — no minimum, no maximum, no fee to extend — so a slipped exit does not create a second crisis.
Ask your solicitor whether the contract allows an extension by agreement and what the vendor's position is. A vendor who also wants the deal to complete will sometimes grant days for nothing. It costs one phone call, it is free, and it occasionally removes the need to borrow at all. We would rather you asked.
Every application is read by a Lending Manager and every credit decision is signed off by a person. We do not use artificial intelligence to assess, approve, decline or price a loan. When the answer is needed today, that is the point — a person can be reached, asked a question, and can decide.
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.
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 on the phone
Can I get funding to complete a settlement in a few days?
What does penalty interest actually cost?
Can you settle without my bank's consent?
What if my exit date moves again?
Can the funds go straight to the vendor?
What is a settlement shortfall?
How fast can a shortfall be funded?
Can you fund a shortfall on a residential purchase?
A dated exit is what makes these the most straightforward files we write.
Have the settlement date and the shortfall figure ready. 1300 93 83 87, Mon–Fri, 8:30am – 5:30pm Melbourne time.
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