Equipment Finance Perth

Equipment finance, built around how the asset earns

Equipment finance is often treated as a commodity. Compare rates, pick the lowest, done. But the structure of the facility matters as much as the rate: who owns the asset, how it sits on your balance sheet, what it does to your borrowing capacity, and whether the repayment profile matches the cash flow the equipment actually generates. Get that wrong and a cheap rate can still cost you the next deal.

If you want the structures themselves explained first, chattel mortgage against lease against hire purchase, and what lenders assess on the asset, start with our guide to business equipment finance.

As an equipment finance broker, we work through those questions before recommending a product, and we have access to a range of specialist equipment and asset finance lenders beyond the major banks. That gives us more room on approval terms, on higher-age assets, and on the deals the banks are slow to understand. We are a Perth-based equipment finance broker, working with businesses across Western Australia and nationally.

What we finance

• Cars, utes and commercial fleets
• Trucks, trailers and tippers
• Cranes and lifting equipment
• Forklifts and warehouse handling equipment
• Manufacturing, fabrication and workshop equipment
• Medical, dental and allied health equipment
• Hospitality and retail equipment and fit-out
• Technology, IT and office fit-out
• Marine and aviation

How we structure equipment finance

There are three main ways to finance a business asset, and the right one depends on ownership, tax treatment and cash flow, not just the headline rate.

• Chattel mortgage for business-use assets, where you own the asset from day one and the lender holds a mortgage over it
• Finance lease, where the lender owns the asset and you lease it, useful where flexibility and end-of-term options matter
• Commercial hire purchase, where you hire the asset and take ownership at the end of the term
• Sale and leaseback of existing assets, to free up working capital from equipment you already own

For vehicles, machinery and equipment, a chattel mortgage is often the cleanest way to finance the asset while keeping ownership with the business. The detail that matters is not just approval. It is setting the term, deposit, balloon and repayment profile so the facility supports your cash flow and does not limit the next finance decision.

New, used and private-sale assets

New, used and private-sale purchases are all financeable. The lender, the term and the rate move with the age and type of the asset, and machinery generally holds value better than vehicles, so it can often be funded at higher ages. A private sale between businesses is routine with the right lender and proper verification of the asset and the seller. The work is in matching the asset and the purchase type to a lender who is actively writing exactly that.

To see how the term and any balloon shape the repayment on a specific asset, try our equipment finance calculator before you commit to a structure.

Set a master facility in place before you buy

If your business buys equipment more than once a year, a master asset finance agreement is one of the most useful things you can have sitting ready. It is a facility limit arranged with a lender in advance, an approved line you can draw against as you acquire assets, rather than starting a fresh application every time a machine or vehicle comes up.

The value is speed and position. When a deal appears, at a clearing sale, a dealer clearance, or a contract win that needs another truck, you already have the funding behind you. You can move like a cash buyer, negotiate harder on price, and settle quickly while others are still waiting on approval. For operators replacing plant on a rolling basis, it turns equipment buying from a reactive scramble into something you can plan.

• An approved limit ready to draw on, so each purchase moves quickly without a full new application
• The standing of a cash buyer when you negotiate with dealers and at auction
• One set of terms across multiple purchases, with capital expenditure you can actually plan around
• Well suited to civil, mining, transport, agriculture and trades businesses renewing fleet and plant over time

A facility is subject to the lender's approval and is usually reviewed periodically, and the right limit and lender depend on your trading history and the assets you buy. The work we do is setting it up with a lender whose appetite fits how your business actually buys, so it is there the moment you need it. If a rolling equipment program is part of your plans, it is worth putting the facility in place now rather than when the deal is already on the table.

Releasing equity in equipment you already own

If your business owns equipment outright, or has paid down a large chunk of an existing facility, that equity does not have to sit idle on the balance sheet. Through a sale and leaseback or a straight equipment refinance, a lender advances funds against the asset's current value and you keep using it under a new facility. It suits businesses that bought equipment for cash, inherited paid-off assets through a purchase or succession, or simply have more equity in a machine or vehicle than the original facility reflects.

• Free up capital tied up in trucks, machinery, fit-out or fleet, without selling the asset or losing its use
• Use the funds for working capital, to smooth a cash flow gap, or as a deposit on the next piece of equipment
• Lenders assess the asset's current value, age and remaining useful life, not what you originally paid for it
• Can be arranged alongside a new purchase, so existing equity and incoming equipment are structured as one position

The mechanics sit alongside the same chattel mortgage, lease and hire purchase structures used for a purchase, so the same tax and cash flow questions apply. It is worth having the conversation before assuming equipment sitting owned outright is doing nothing for the business.

Tax and accounting considerations

The structure of an equipment finance facility has direct implications for GST, depreciation, and how the liability appears on your balance sheet. Those differences are part of why the choice between a chattel mortgage, a lease and a hire purchase is not just a rate decision. We work alongside your accountant or tax adviser to make sure the structure fits your reporting and your cash flow, rather than treating it as an afterthought once the asset is already bought.

Buying equipment as part of a larger deal

Equipment is often bought at the same time as a business, a contract win or a commercial property. Where it forms part of a business acquisition or sits alongside a commercial property purchase, the equipment finance should be designed with the rest of the structure, not bolted on afterwards. Treating it as one combined picture protects your borrowing capacity and keeps the security position clean.

What decides your equipment finance rate

Equipment finance is priced on the asset and the borrower together, which is why 2 businesses buying the same machine can be quoted differently. The levers, roughly in order of weight: the age and type of the asset (a new, common, easily resold machine prices best; specialised or older gear prices higher), the term against the asset's working life, the balloon or residual left at the end, the deposit or trade-in going in, the business's time trading and its statements, and whether the asset is bought from a dealer, privately or at auction. Lender appetite for the asset class matters too: the specialist funders that actively write heavy plant, trucks and mining gear are often sharper on those assets than a generalist.

Two practical consequences. First, the rate is only one of 4 numbers that set the cost, alongside term, balloon and fees, so compare the total cost over the term rather than the headline. Second, the structure is negotiable before the application goes in and rarely after, which is why we set it up first. Run the term and balloon through the equipment finance calculator to see what each one does to the repayment and the total interest before you commit.

Why use an equipment finance broker?

Going direct to one lender means accepting that lender's policy, rate and view of your asset. An equipment finance broker compares your deal across a panel of lenders and places it where it has the best chance of approval on terms that suit the asset and your cash flow. For standard assets that can mean a sharper rate. For higher-age equipment, private sales, or a business the banks find hard to read, it can be the difference between a yes and a no. There is no cost to you on most deals, because the lender pays the broker.

If equipment is only one part of a bigger finance picture, our guide to choosing a finance broker in Perth covers how a commercial-focused broker differs from a residential-only mortgage broker, and what to ask before you commit to one.

Not sure how lender-ready your business looks on paper? Our free business finance check takes two minutes and shows you the gaps a lender would query before you apply.

Frequently asked questions