Hospitality margins are tight and surprises are expensive: a dead coolroom, a failed coffee machine or a winter that runs long. We fund hospitality owners quickly, and we understand card-heavy trading.
What cafés & restaurants use fast finance for
Repair broken equipmentNo property needed
Fit-out or renovateWith or without property
Pay wages & superNo property needed
Smooth seasonal cash flowNo property needed
Survive a temporary shutdownWith or without property
Pay an ATO or tax debtWith or without propertyBest-fit loan types
Why hospitality is financed differently from everything else
Hospitality is the one sector where the money arrives daily and leaves faster. Takings land every night, which sounds like an advantage until you account for stock bought weekly on short terms, wages run fortnightly, rent monthly and a fit-out financed over years against a lease you do not own.
That pattern makes hospitality look risky to lenders who assess on annual figures, because a year of accounts flattens exactly the volatility that defines the business. A venue can have an excellent February and a catastrophic June for reasons entirely outside its control, and the annual figure shows neither.
It also means hospitality businesses are frequently asset-poor on paper. The kitchen is depreciating, the fit-out belongs to the lease, and the goodwill is not on the balance sheet. For a bank that is a thin file. For a lender assessing property equity and exit, it is largely irrelevant.
What venues borrow for
| The need | Why the timing hurts | Usual answer |
|---|---|---|
| Fit-out or refurbishment | Spend lands months before the extra covers arrive | Property-secured funding, or equipment finance |
| Seasonal stock and staffing | Christmas and winter are funded before they are earned | Cash-flow lending, or a merchant cash advance against card takings |
| Equipment failure | A cold room or oven down closes the kitchen | Same-day funding |
| Taking on a second site | Bond, fit-out and pre-opening wages, all before day one | Property-secured funding up to $5M |
| A quiet quarter | Fixed costs continue through it | Short-term funding repaid by the next peak |
| Buying out a partner or a venue | Vendor timetables rarely match bank timetables | Bridging against property |
Can you fund a venue that does not own property?
Yes, though the options differ. Where the operator or a director owns a home or investment property — which is common even where the venue itself is leased — that property can secure funding up to $5 million with no financials and funding in as little as 24 hours. The venue’s own trading position barely enters the assessment.
Without property, the relevant products are cash-flow lending assessed from bank statements and merchant cash advances that take a percentage of daily card and EFTPOS sales. The second suits hospitality unusually well, because repayment flexes with trade rather than holding a venue to a fixed monthly figure through a quiet July.
Pubs, hotels, clubs, caterers, food trucks, bakeries and QSR operators are all funded the same way as cafés and restaurants. The product depends on what secures it, not on what is written above the door.
Fit-out finance, and why the lease is the complication
A fit-out is the largest single cost most venues ever face and the hardest to finance conventionally, for a reason that surprises first-time operators: when the fit-out is complete, most of it legally belongs to the premises rather than to you.
That is why a bank will lend against a house and hesitate over a $400,000 kitchen. The security is fixed to a property somebody else owns, under a lease with a fixed term and a landlord’s make-good clause at the end of it. From a lender’s side, the asset is close to unrecoverable.
The practical routes are therefore either equipment finance over the removable items — the combi oven, the cold room, the coffee machine, the POS — or property-secured funding against a property the operator owns personally, which ignores the lease question entirely and usually covers the whole project rather than the portion that happens to be unbolted.
One piece of advice that costs nothing: read the make-good clause before you commit to the spend, not at the end of the term. A venue that has budgeted for a fit-out but not for restoring the premises at the end of the lease has an expensive surprise waiting, and it lands in the same year as the next fit-out.
Two fast lanes
- Check eligibility60 seconds online, with no credit score impact.
- We pick your fastest laneProperty-secured (up to $5M, no financials) or cash-flow (bank statements).
- Get a decisionUsually the same business day, with every cost in writing.
- Get fundedIn as little as 2 hours (cash-flow) or 24 hours (property-secured).
Frequently asked questions
Can a new café get a loan?
If you own property, yes. Cash-flow loans need 6+ months of trading.
Is a merchant cash advance good for cafés?
It can be, because repayments flex with card takings. Compare it with an unsecured loan first.
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.
