Short answer: The fastest business loans in Australia are cash-flow loans assessed on bank statements, which can be funded in as little as 2 hours. Property-secured loans can fund in as little as 24 hours. Banks and traditional lenders typically take two to six weeks. The median across our own book is 24 to 36 hours.
How long does each type of business loan take?
These are medians from our own loan book rather than best cases, measured from first enquiry to cleared funds. The full dataset is in our Funding Speed Report.
| Loan type | Median to funds | Fastest recorded |
|---|---|---|
| First mortgage | 12 hours | 6 hours |
| Unsecured / cash-flow loan | 24 hours | 2 hours |
| Line of credit | 24 hours | 8 hours |
| Second mortgage | 36 hours | 24 hours |
| Bridging finance | 36 hours | 24 hours |
| Asset finance | 48 hours | 8 hours |
| Invoice finance | 96 hours | 48 hours |
| Bank term loan | Two to six weeks | — |
The pattern surprises most people: lending secured by property is at the fast end, not the slow end. That is because it is assessed on the equity in the property and on how the loan will be repaid, rather than on trading history. There is no serviceability test to work through, so there is less to slow down.
Why the advertised time and the real time are different
Almost every speed claim in this market is an approval time, not a funding time. A lender advertising ‘approval in one hour’ may still take a day or more to get money into your account, and the two numbers are usually published in different places on the same website.
There is a second gap between the best case and the typical case. ‘Funds in 2 hours’ is almost always the fastest file a lender has ever written. It is true, and it is not what you should plan around.
Ask two questions of any lender and the picture clears up immediately. How long from now until cleared funds, not until approval? And is that your best case or your median? A lender who cannot answer the second question is not measuring it.
What makes a file fast
The difference between 24 hours and four days is almost never the lender. It is what the file looks like when it arrives.
- Signatories who are available today. Property in a single personal name is fastest. A company or trust is entirely normal, but every director or trustee has to be reachable, and this is the single most common reason a same-day file becomes a two-day file.
- A property a valuer does not need to visit. Metropolitan residential, commercial and industrial property can usually be valued from a desk in minutes. A remote or unusual property needs an inspection, which adds days rather than hours.
- A documented exit. A contract, a settlement date, a sale already listed or a refinance in progress. An intention with nothing behind it is not an exit and will be questioned.
- A clean title. Old caveats, forgotten encumbrances and name mismatches are all resolvable, and none of them is resolvable in an afternoon if discovered late.
- An early start. An enquiry at 9am and an enquiry at 4pm on a Friday are different jobs.
What actually slows a loan down
In our experience nearly every delayed file traces back to one of four things, and three are fixable before you start.
- A signatory who cannot be reached. A director travelling, a co-owner who does not yet know the loan is happening, a trust with two signatories and one contactable. Confirm availability before anything else.
- A valuation that has to be physical. If you have a choice of security and a tight deadline, the metropolitan property is the faster route even if the other has more equity.
- A surprise on the title. Properties held for a long time often carry something nobody remembers registering.
- Information arriving in pieces. Every round trip for one more document costs hours. Sending everything at once, including the awkward parts, is the single biggest thing a borrower controls.
How to get funded faster
Five things, in the order they matter.
- Say the deadline out loud at the start. It changes how the file is structured, not just how quickly it is handled. A lender who does not know you have a Thursday settlement cannot protect it.
- Have the existing loan statement to hand. Not the original loan amount, the current balance. Chasing it from a bank is a common half-day.
- Lead with the awkward facts. Defaults, ATO debt, arrears, a dispute on the title. None of them necessarily stops the loan. Discovering them at 4pm does.
- Check who has to sign before anything else. It takes one phone call and it is the highest-value thing you can do on day one.
- Start the conversation the day you know the date. Even if you have not decided to proceed. A file that is already understood moves in hours when you say go.
When fast is the wrong goal
Speed is worth paying for when something with a date is going to cost you more than the finance does. A settlement that falls over, a contract that goes elsewhere, a garnishee that escalates, a crew stood down for a fortnight — each of those has a number, and that number is what belongs next to the cost of the loan.
When nothing has a date, the arithmetic usually favours waiting. A bank facility priced over years will cost less than short-term finance priced over months, and if your file would pass at a bank and your deadline is eight weeks out, the bank is the better answer. Any lender worth using will tell you that rather than write the loan.
There is also a middle path that people miss. A short-term loan now with a refinance as its exit gets you the money on the deadline and the cheaper long-term debt afterwards, with the two processes running in parallel instead of in sequence. How business loans are priced → works through the comparison properly.
Check your options in 60 seconds
The eligibility check takes about a minute, makes no credit enquiry and costs nothing. It tells you which loans fit your situation and roughly how quickly each could fund, before you commit to anything.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest a business loan has ever been funded?
Two hours, on a cash-flow loan assessed from bank statements. That is the fastest on our own book across 5,626 loans. It required the application to start early in the day with bank data connected immediately.
Is 24-hour funding a real claim or marketing?
Both are in the market. The way to tell is to ask for time to cleared funds rather than time to approval, and to ask what the median is rather than the best case. Most advertised figures are approval times or best cases.
Does applying to several lenders at once make it faster?
No, and it can slow you down. Multiple hard credit enquiries in a short window are visible to every lender who looks and invite questions. Check eligibility first, which does not make an enquiry.
Why do banks take so long?
Because they assess serviceability from financial statements, which means gathering documents, verifying income and passing a credit committee. None of that is unreasonable; it simply cannot be compressed into a day.
Can I get funded on a weekend?
Assessment and signing can happen any day. Settlement and clearing depend on banking and titles-office hours, so a Saturday enquiry usually funds Monday. Starting Friday afternoon for a Monday deadline is tight.
Does it cost anything to apply?
No. There's no cost to apply or check your eligibility. All costs are set out in writing in your loan offer before you sign anything.
Will checking my eligibility affect my credit score?
No. Our 60-second eligibility check doesn't make a credit enquiry. A credit check is only done later, with your consent, if you decide to proceed.
