Borrowers on a non-bank commercial facility looking to move
They took non-bank money because the deal had a deadline, a gap in the financials or an asset bank policy would not take. By the time they enquire, the reason the facility was written outside a bank has usually expired, and they want to know what a bank would do now.
This enquiry comes from a borrower who already owns commercial property and already has a facility on it, written by a non-bank, private-credit or specialist lender rather than a bank. Almost nobody sets out to be there. Something about the deal, the evidence or the building put it outside bank policy at the time.
The temporary part has since expired, or the borrower believes it has. Establishing which is the whole first call; the mechanics of the move itself are in how commercial refinancing works.
You cannot read this deal without knowing the original reason. These facilities get written for a short list of reasons, each with its own half-life:
- Speed. A settlement date, an auction, an option expiring. Bank credit could not land inside the window, so the borrower paid for certainty and planned to fix it later.
- Financials that were not current. Returns not lodged, a year that read badly, a business restructured mid-cycle. The income was real; the evidence was not in the shape bank credit reads.
- A tax position on the books. An ATO debt or an arrangement that put the file outside bank policy at the time, even where trading was sound.
- The security itself. Specialised use, mixed use, a short or single-tenant lease, a related-party lease, an unfinished fitout. Bank policy accepts a narrower list of buildings than the market builds.
- The structure. A partner buyout, a trust or entity change, a new guarantor. The deal was sound but the paperwork was young.
- A construction residue. A facility taken to finish a project and still there after practical completion, because nobody arranged the takeout. Development scenarios are not a separate lead product; they arrive inside the commercial and refinance mix.
Some of those reasons expire on their own: a financial year passes, returns get lodged, a lease gets signed. Others do not. Asset class and lease profile are still there in year three unless something changed on the ground, and that is the difference between a bank refinance and a better specialist one.
By the time the borrower fills in a form a trigger has arrived: a review or expiry date on the calendar, a valuation requested, or an accountant saying the profile is bankable now. None of that shows on the enquiry form, so the checks in commercial loan leads: what to check still apply here.
“It was only ever meant to be short term”
The most common opening line. Ask what the facility was taken to do, and whether that thing is finished. If not, you are refinancing to a better specialist, not to a bank.
“They have asked for a new valuation”
A valuation at review is the borrower's deadline and therefore yours. Pin the review or expiry date early: it decides whether this is a deal now or a file to diarise.
The exit terms on the existing facility
Discharge notice periods, early-repayment charges and break conditions vary widely on specialist debt. Read them before you position anything, or the timing falls over at settlement.
Whether the original reason still exists
The qualifying question. Current financials, a documented tax position, a leased asset and a settled ownership structure are what turn a specialist file into a bank file.
The security through a bank's eyes
Asset class, use, condition, lease term and tenant quality decide the panel. A building a specialist funded on the way in is not automatically one a bank takes on the way out.
Who they have already spoken to
Many went direct to the incumbent, or used a broker who has since moved on. Who owns the relationship tells you how much of the story you get on the first call, and how much you rebuild.
Two things make this enquiry more common in 2026 than when the facilities were written. Australian private credit is now a market with its own cycle, at roughly $225bn (The Adviser, August 2026), and some Australian real-estate credit funds paused or delayed investor redemptions in July and August 2026 (trade press, August 2026). When a lender is managing its own liquidity, a rollover stops being something a borrower can assume.
Bank appetite is the other half, and no aggregate settles it: business credit as a whole is still growing, up 10.8% year on year (RBA, July 2026), but that series counts every lender, so it says borrowers are being funded, not who is funding them. Whether a bank takes this asset off a specialist is decided on the building, the lease and the financials. The wider picture is in commercial refinance in 2026.
These enquiries arrive inside our commercial property refinance leads flow, which runs $1M to $10M+, rather than as a product of their own; the same flow carries expiring facilities and restructures across the broader commercial finance mix. Every mobile is verified by SMS before the lead ships, every enquiry gets a human qualification review, and each one is sold once, to one broker, never resold. Pay per lead, delivered to your inbox or CRM in real time, no lock-in contracts. It suits commercial brokers and mortgage brokers who write commercial, with majors accreditation or strong non-bank access; the lead is an introduction, not a recommendation.