Business Loans Without a House: Your Real Options

Yes, you can get business finance without owning property. The main options are unsecured loans (major banks lend up to $200,000–$250,000 from 12.95% p.a.; online lenders charge from 15.5% to 35.99% APR), equipment finance secured by the asset, invoice finance, overdrafts, cards and trade credit. Expect higher costs, and expect to sign a personal guarantee that can still put your home at risk.

This is general information, not financial product advice, and it doesn't consider your circumstances. Read the loan contract and key facts, and consider getting advice before you borrow.

Borrowing without property at a glance

Published figures from lenders' own pages, checked 17–18 October 2026. They are not offers, and the rate you're offered is set after assessment.

For every finance type in one place, use our business loans guide. For 13 unsecured lenders side by side, with fees, repayments and factor rates converted to annual rates, see unsecured business loans compared.

Why banks want your house

Banks price loans on risk. A registered mortgage over a property gives the lender a near-certain way to get its money back if your business goes under, which is why property-secured loans carry the lowest rates. The RBA's average rate for new residentially secured small business loans was 6.98% in August 2026, according to the figures used in our business loans guide. Without property, the lender relies on your business's cash flow. That's riskier, so it charges more, lends less and reads your bank statements more closely.

Every option below is a lender finding a different way to feel safe: charging a premium (unsecured loans), taking the asset itself as security (equipment finance), taking your invoices (invoice finance), or making you personally liable anyway (the guarantee, covered below).

Unsecured business loans: how much can you borrow without property?

Unsecured doesn't always mean unlimited. Several online lenders cap what they'll lend before they want property ownership or a charge over your business assets. These are the property-free limits each lender publishes.

Checked 18 October 2026 on NAB, ANZ, CommBank, Prospa, Lumi, OnDeck and Moula. Order is banks first, then non-banks; it is not a ranking.

A few things the table doesn't show. Prospa charges an origination fee of 2%–3.5% and adds 1.5% of the remaining principal if you pay out early. Moula charges a 2% establishment fee and has no early repayment penalty. Lumi says it has no prepayment penalties. Fees, repayment frequency and early payout terms for every lender are in our unsecured business loans comparison.

These loans suit a short, specific need with a clear payback, such as stock for a confirmed order or a fit-out that opens new revenue. They don't suit plugging ongoing losses: borrowing at 25% to cover an unprofitable business just deepens the hole faster.

Equipment and asset finance (chattel mortgage)

If the money is for a ute, machine, trailer, oven or piece of kit, look at asset finance before an unsecured loan. Under a chattel mortgage, the lender takes security over the asset itself, so your house never enters the conversation, and pricing reflects the lower risk. The major banks we checked don't publish an equipment finance rate; they quote a fixed rate after assessing the asset, your ABN age and credit history. CommBank finances from $20,000 with no deposit, and NAB says typical terms run one to five years.

You own the asset from day one and can usually claim the GST credit in your next BAS if you're registered for GST. An optional balloon lowers regular repayments but increases total interest. New, easily resold assets get the best pricing. Business finance usually doesn't come with a comparison rate, so ask for the total cost, including establishment, monthly and early payout fees, before comparing on rate alone. Hire purchase and leases are covered in the business loans guide, and our guide to buying or leasing equipment helps you compare the commitment.

Invoice finance: unlock money you're already owed

If customers take 30–60 days to pay while your bills are due now, invoice finance turns unpaid invoices into cash. ScotPac, for example, advances up to 85% of eligible invoice value and releases the rest, less fees, when your customer pays. It looks for at least six months of trading and $10,000 a month in invoices (as at October 2026).

Pricing is usually a service fee plus a discount charge on the money advanced, and most providers quote rather than publish rates. Do the annualised maths on any quote. As an illustration, a 2% all-up cost on an invoice paid in 30 days works out at roughly 24% a year. It comes in two forms:

• Factoring: the financier takes over collecting the invoice, and your customers know. Common for smaller businesses.
• Invoice discounting: confidential; you keep collecting. Usually reserved for larger, established businesses.

It suits B2B businesses with creditworthy customers and growth that's outrunning cash flow. The financier checks your customers' creditworthiness as much as yours, so it won't fix customers who don't pay at all. Our guide to chasing unpaid invoices covers the other side of the problem.

Business credit cards and overdrafts

For small, short-term gaps, the familiar options still work. An unsecured business overdraft attaches to your trading account and you pay interest only on what you use. Published unsecured rates at the major banks were 15.05%–16.50% p.a. in October 2026, plus a line fee of 1.20%–1.75% p.a. on the whole limit, so an oversized limit costs money even when you don't touch it. Our overdraft vs line of credit guide compares the two.

Business credit cards give up to 55 interest-free days on some cards, which is free short-term finance if you clear the balance in full every month. Purchase rates across the 23 cards in our business credit cards guide ran from 12.99% to 20.74% (as at 17 October 2026). Most small business cards make the applicant personally liable, so treat the card as a smoothing tool, not a funding source.

Trade credit: the finance nobody counts

A 30-day account with your suppliers is an interest-free loan, and it's the cheapest finance in this article. Build it deliberately: start with small orders paid on time, then ask for terms once you've got a track record. Running $20,000 a month through supplier accounts on 30-day terms is effectively a permanent $20,000 interest-free facility. Protect it, because supplier trust is expensive to rebuild, and manage the payment cycles as part of your cash flow management. Our guide to negotiating supplier terms with a cash forecast shows how to ask.

The personal guarantee reality

Here's the part lender websites tend to bury: "unsecured" almost never means nobody is on the hook. Most unsecured business loans to a company require a director's guarantee, a personal promise to repay if the business can't. OnDeck says a personal guarantee is required on all its loans, and Prospa takes guarantees from directors, shareholders or people actively managing the business.

If the business fails owing $80,000, the lender can pursue you personally: court judgment, enforcement against your income and, ultimately, the sale of your house even though it was never formally mortgaged. Running a company doesn't shield you from debts you've personally guaranteed. Some lenders also register a charge over business assets on the Personal Property Securities Register, or a caveat over property, once you borrow above a threshold or default. Prospa says it may do this above $150,000.

None of this means don't borrow. It means read the guarantee, understand exactly what's exposed, and treat "unsecured" as "no property mortgage", not "no personal risk". The guarantee checklist in our unsecured loans comparison covers what to ask before you sign.

What lenders actually assess without property

No house to value means the lender lives in your bank statements. Expect them to look at:

• Bank statements: usually six months, often through a secure read-only connection. OnDeck's smaller loans need nothing beyond six months of digital statements. Lenders look at real revenue, dishonours, existing repayments and whether the account regularly goes backwards.
• Revenue: minimums published in October 2026 ranged from $10,000 a month in sales (Moula) and $50,000 a year (Lumi) to $75,000 a year with GST registration (NAB) and $100,000 a year (OnDeck).
• Time in business: 6 months (Prospa, Lumi, ANZ GoBiz) to 12 months (NAB, Moula, OnDeck) on your current ABN or ACN.
• Credit history: the director's personal credit file matters as much as the business's. Defaults and many recent enquiries hurt.
• Existing debt and tax position: undisclosed loans and ATO arrears are deal-killers. The ATO can report a business tax debt to credit bureaus when at least $100,000 is overdue by more than 90 days and you aren't engaging with it, so set up a payment plan before you apply. Our guide to preparing for an ATO payment plan conversation covers what to bring.

Government-backed options

There's no general government-guaranteed small business loan scheme now; the COVID-era SME Recovery Loan Scheme closed in 2022. Targeted programs exist instead:

• Economic Resilience Program. A $1 billion program from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation offering zero-interest loans to manufacturing and logistics businesses materially affected by market disruption, particularly in freight, fuel, fertiliser and plastics supply chains. Loans of up to $5 million go through participating banks, with terms of up to two years; you repay the principal in full and standard bank fees apply. The bank-administered stream opened on 20 April 2026 for six months or until allocations ran out, which put its closing date around 20 October 2026, and ANZ had already stopped taking new applications when we checked on 18 October 2026. Loans above $5 million are handled by the NRFC directly. Check business.gov.au and the NRFC for its current status before planning around it.
• Other targeted loans. Indigenous Business Australia's Start-Up Finance Package, Export Finance Australia's Small Business Export Loan and Regional Investment Corporation farm loans are summarised in our business loans guide.
• Green asset finance. Not a government program, but CommBank offers green discounts of up to 0.50% p.a. on qualifying energy-efficient cars and equipment, and NAB has a green finance product for qualifying electric vehicles.
• State programs and grants. They change often; check the grants and programs finder on business.gov.au and our grants and government support guide.

Red flags: fast money that costs a fortune

The unsecured lending market has a rough edge, and it's aimed at people who need money quickly. Watch for:

The factor rate trap. Merchant cash advances and some short-term lenders quote a "factor rate" instead of an interest rate. A factor of 1.25 on a $40,000 advance means you repay $50,000. That looks like 25%, but it isn't comparable to an interest rate, because interest is charged on a declining balance while a factor rate is a fixed dollar cost. Repaid over six months in business-day instalments, that $10,000 cost works out at about 92% a year as an annual percentage rate, or about 90% with weekly repayments (ASBG calculation; the method is in our unsecured loans comparison). Repaying early usually saves nothing unless the lender offers an early settlement discount, because the total was fixed on day one.

Daily repayment products. Deductions hit your account every business day, or as a cut of card sales, and quietly drain the cash you need for wages and rent. The worst case is "stacking": a second advance to cover repayments on the first. That's the debt spiral, and it kills businesses.

Brokers pushing speed over fit. A broker with money "approved in an hour" before asking a single question about your business is selling a commission, not a solution. Business-purpose lending generally sits outside the National Credit Code, so consumer protections such as hardship rules and comparison rates may not apply.

Unsolicited offers. business.gov.au says unsolicited loan offers are almost certainly scams. Check unfamiliar lenders on ASIC's registers.

Before signing anything, get two numbers in writing: the total dollar cost of the finance, and the annual percentage rate including fees. If a lender or broker won't give you those, walk away. Check the lender is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority so you have somewhere to go if things go wrong.

Preparing your case

Lenders without property security are backing your cash flow, so show it to them properly. Get six months of clean bank statements (no dishonours, no gambling, no accounts constantly at zero), up-to-date financials (a current profit and loss statement is the minimum) and a cash flow forecast showing the repayments fitting comfortably. For larger amounts, a short business plan showing exactly what the money does and how it comes back lifts you out of the "hopeful applicant" pile; our free business plan builder gets you most of the way, and the business plan for a bank loan guide shows how lenders test serviceability. Run the numbers past your accountant before you apply, not after, because the structure of the borrowing often matters more than the rate.

Key takeaways

• No property doesn't mean no finance, just dearer finance. Major banks published unsecured rates of 12.95%–13.09% p.a. and online lenders 15.5%–35.99% APR in October 2026, so borrow for opportunities with a clear payback, not to fund losses.
• Property-free limits vary: up to $250,000 at NAB and CommBank, $200,000 at ANZ GoBiz, $150,000 at Prospa, most loans to $300,000 at Lumi and up to $500,000 at Moula.
• Match the product to the need: asset finance for equipment, invoice finance for slow-paying customers, an overdraft for uneven months, trade credit for breathing room.
• "Unsecured" almost always comes with a personal guarantee, so your house can still be on the line through a different legal route.
• Never accept a factor-rate quote at face value: a 1.25 factor over six months is roughly 90% a year. Demand the total dollar cost and annual rate in writing.
• The zero-interest Economic Resilience Program's bank window ran for six months from 20 April 2026 and covers only specific manufacturing and logistics sectors; check business.gov.au for its current status before counting on it.

Where to get help

• business.gov.au: grants and programs finder, including the Economic Resilience Program, and steps for applying for a business loan
• National Reconstruction Fund Corporation: participating banks and NRFC-administered loans above $5 million
• ato.gov.au: payment plans if tax debt is part of why you're borrowing
• ASIC Moneysmart: borrowing guidance, plus ASIC's registers for checking lenders and brokers
• afca.org.au: complaints about member lenders and brokers, including guarantor complaints
• Small Business Debt Helpline: free, confidential financial counselling on 1800 413 828
• Your accountant: before you apply, not after