Australia's specialist commercial finance broker

A commercial finance broker acts as a specialist intermediary between you and the business lending marketplace. Rather than approaching one lender and accepting whatever they offer, we assess your financial position, your goals, and the nature of your transaction, then identify the lenders on our panel most likely to approve your application on competitive terms.

But that's not all, our role extends well beyond introductions. We prepare the application, handle the negotiations, manage lender queries, and support you from the first conversation through to settlement. Because commercial lending is considerably more complex than personal lending, having a specialist commercial broker in your corner can make a significant difference to both the outcome and the terms you secure.

It varies by broker but in our case we do not charge a fee in most cases. We are compensated by the lender via commission once your loan settles. This commission is absorbed by the lender and does not affect your loan costs, meaning you pay nothing directly for our brokering service in the majority of transactions. This arrangement is fully disclosed as part of our engagement.

That said, in some cases where complex lending requirements are at play, if a fee is required you will always be notified in advance so you can make an informed decision. This typically occurs with very complex or non-standard commercial transactions. Similarly, if your application requires a business plan or cash flow projections, those services are priced and quoted separately in advance.

A residential mortgage broker has deep expertise in home loans, a market characterised by largely standardised lending criteria and consistent credit scorecards. Commercial and business finance, however, operates under fundamentally different rules.

Specifically, commercial lending is a case-by-case risk assessment process. Lenders evaluate the nature of the security, your industry, lease structures, loan purpose, and your business's financial trajectory, not simply a credit score or a basic income test. Therefore, the ability to position an application correctly for the right lender is a skill that develops through years of dedicated commercial practice. Many of our clients come to us after a residential mortgage broker told them they could not assist. In most cases, the issue was not that the transaction could not be done, but that it needed to be packaged and submitted in a fundamentally different way.

Our two core specialisations are commercial property finance and business loans, and within each area we cover a broad range of transaction types and loan structures.

On the commercial property side, that includes owner-occupied premises, investment properties, development and construction projects, and SMSF commercial property lending. On the business finance side, we work with working capital facilities, lines of credit, equipment finance, invoice finance, and business acquisition loans. In addition, we assist clients with refinancing and loan reviews, because securing the right structure at the outset matters, and so does ensuring that structure continues to serve your business as your circumstances evolve. You can explore our commercial property loan options or review our business finance solutions in more detail.

Yes. Nadine Connell is accredited with the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia and is an authorised representative of Loan Market Group, one of Australia's largest mortgage and finance aggregator groups. Consequently, every client engagement is conducted under a fully regulated credit framework, with all statutory obligations fully observed.

Being an accredited member of the MFAA requires ongoing professional development, professional indemnity insurance, and adherence to a strict member code of practice. Smart Business Plans has been operating continuously since 2009. During that time the team has helped arrange over $550 million in commercial property and business finance for more than 3,300 Australian business owners and property investors. You can learn more on the Nadine Connell page.

Yes, and this situation is more common than most people realise. Many business owners need to refinance their home loan to access equity as part of a business purchase, commercial property acquisition, or expansion. Others simply want the confidence of having one broker who can see their complete financial position rather than working with two separate brokers who each see only half the picture.

We are accredited for residential home loans as well as commercial and business finance, so we can coordinate both facilities in-house. In our experience, the complexity in these transactions almost always sits with the business or commercial component. The risk of using two separate brokers in these situations is real. Each broker sees only part of your borrowing position. Your total debt servicing capacity, the order in which applications are submitted, and how the two facilities interact all matter significantly to how lenders assess your overall position. Having everything coordinated through one specialist means your home loan and business finance are structured to work together from the outset.

The good news is that you do not need everything perfectly prepared before our initial conversation. Generally speaking, having some basic information to hand helps us give you a more accurate picture of your options from the outset.

It is useful to know your approximate annual business turnover, how long your business has been trading, whether you have existing debt, and the type and amount of finance you are looking for. For commercial property transactions, basic details about the property, including its intended use and estimated value, are also helpful. If you are simply at the exploratory stage and want to understand what is possible before committing to any direction, that is perfectly fine. Above all, the important thing is to speak with us before approaching any lender directly, because how your credit file is managed in the early stages can meaningfully affect your options later on.

This is one of the most practical advantages of working through a specialist broker rather than approaching lenders directly. Every time a business owner or property investor applies directly to a lender, that lender performs a credit enquiry. Multiple enquiries in a short period register on your credit file as a pattern lenders commonly associate with financial stress, and as a result each subsequent lender may factor that pattern into their assessment.

When you work with us, the comparison and assessment phase happens before any credit enquiry is triggered. We assess your full financial position, identify the right lender for your specific situation, and prepare a well-structured, strategically positioned application. Consequently, your credit file is only subject to a hard enquiry at the point where we are ready to submit to a lender we have already identified as the right fit, not during the research and shortlisting phase.

Yes, and in truth this is one of the most common reasons clients come to us. A decline from your bank or a previous broker is rarely the end of the road. In most cases, it simply means the application was submitted to the wrong lender, or packaged in a way that did not suit that particular lender's credit appetite.

Every lender on our panel of 60+ lenders assesses risk differently. A deal that one lender declines, another will actively compete for, depending on the security type, your industry, the loan purpose, and how the numbers are presented. When a business owner has already been knocked back, the first thing we do is understand why the decline happened, then identify the lenders whose criteria genuinely fit your situation and rebuild the application accordingly. Importantly, because multiple direct applications can leave a trail of credit enquiries on your file, the sooner you speak with us after a decline, the more room we have to position the next application well. Get in touch and we will give you a straight answer on whether your deal is workable.

Yes, and refinancing is in fact one of the most valuable services we provide. Many business owners and commercial property investors are sitting on loan structures that were appropriate when first arranged but are no longer competitive. This may be because lending conditions have shifted, the business has grown, or better options now exist in the market.

Through a commercial property loan refinance review, we assess your existing facility against what is currently available across our panel of 60+ lenders. In some cases, the right outcome is renegotiating with your current lender on improved terms. In others, moving to a different lender delivers meaningfully better rates, flexibility, or loan structure. Importantly, we always assess whether the switching costs are genuinely justified before suggesting any change. To understand current commercial lending conditions and whether the market has moved in your favour, our commercial property market insights provides quarterly analysis across Australia's major markets.

Commercial lending conditions can shift considerably with interest rate movements, lender credit policy changes, and broader economic factors. Those shifts also vary by state, property type, and loan size. For Australian business owners and commercial property investors, therefore, staying informed is genuinely valuable rather than simply interesting.

The most reliable way to stay current is to work with a specialist who is actively placing loans across the market on a regular basis. Because our team works with lenders daily, we typically have a real-time view of which lenders are competing aggressively and where credit policies have changed, well ahead of what is publicly reported. You can also read our commercial property market insights, which covers quarterly lending conditions across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and other key Australian markets. Additionally, our commercial property and business finance articles provide practical commentary on market developments throughout the year.

Understanding your numbers before speaking with a broker or lender puts you in a considerably stronger starting position, both in knowing what you can realistically pursue and in having a more productive initial conversation about structure, affordability, and timing.

Our calculators and tools section includes several practical resources designed specifically for Australian commercial property and business finance scenarios. These include a commercial property buy vs rent calculator, SMSF borrowing calculators, cash flow tools, and borrowing capacity estimators. All tools are free to use and designed to provide directional insight rather than formal financial advice. Moreover, our commercial property market insights and finance articles provide broader context around market conditions and lending trends, giving you a well-rounded starting point before committing to any direction.