Funding purpose
Business finance for renovation and fit-out finance
A fit-out is the least recoverable money a business spends. Financing it keeps your cash where it can still do something.
Renovation and fit-out finance is funding for the works that make a commercial premises usable — joinery, services, flooring, signage and equipment — spread across the lease term rather than paid from working capital.
Fit-out costs land as one large bill before the premises earn anything. Partitioning, ceilings, lighting, flooring, plumbing and electrical, joinery, signage and compliance works are all bespoke to the tenancy and cannot be taken with you or sold. That is precisely why financing them makes sense: paying cash for an asset with no resale value drains the reserves a business needs for stock, staff and the trading period while the new space finds its feet. Lenders assess fit-out finance on the business rather than on the works themselves.
The critical structural point is term alignment. Finance should not run longer than the lease, including options you are confident of exercising. A five-year facility on a three-year lease with no option leaves you paying for a fit-out in premises you have left. Landlord contributions are common and should be documented before the facility is structured, since they reduce the amount needed. Where works are staged to keep trading, drawdowns can usually be arranged to match each stage rather than releasing everything at once.
The cash-flow pattern we plan around
A single large capital outlay before the refurbished premises trade, with disruption during the works and revenue benefits arriving over the following months.
What renovation and fit-out finance typically fund
- Shop, clinic or office fit-out on a new tenancy
- Refurbishing existing premises to lift trade
- Compliance, accessibility and services upgrades
- Signage, joinery and lighting
- Equipment installed as part of the works
Documents lenders usually ask renovation and fit-out finance for
- Signed lease with term and option details
- Builder or shopfitter quote and scope of works
- 6–12 months of bank statements or business financials
Finance options for renovation and fit-out finance
Fit-out finance for renovation and fit-out finance
This is the purpose-built structure. Fit-out finance funds the whole scope — building works, joinery, services, flooring, signage and installed equipment — as a single facility repaid across the lease term, and it is assessed on your trading rather than on assets that have no resale value.
Unsecured business loan for renovation and fit-out finance
For a smaller refurbishment — repainting, new lighting, a counter rebuild, updated signage — an unsecured term loan is often faster and simpler than a structured fit-out facility, with light documentation and funding within days. It costs more, but on a $60,000 refresh over two years the difference in dollars may be modest against the value of moving quickly.
Equipment loan for renovation and fit-out finance
Not everything in a fit-out is unrecoverable. Ovens, refrigeration, POS systems, gym equipment, treatment beds and machinery retain resale value and can be financed separately against those assets at better rates and longer terms than the building works.
Finance lease for renovation and fit-out finance
Where fittings and equipment will be refreshed on a cycle rather than kept indefinitely — display systems, hospitality equipment, technology — a finance lease keeps payments fully deductible and leaves the end-of-term decision open. You can pay the residual and keep the items, or hand them back and refit with current equipment.
Business line of credit for renovation and fit-out finance
A revolving limit is not the right way to fund the fit-out itself, but it is very useful alongside one. Refurbishment means disrupted trade, and a facility available through the works and the weeks afterwards covers rent, wages and stock while the premises get back to normal.
Commercial property loan for renovation and fit-out finance
Where you own the premises, the calculation changes entirely. Renovation works to a building you own add to its value and can often be folded into the property facility or funded by a top-up against the improved valuation, at property rates rather than commercial fit-out rates.
Lenders active in this space
Flexicommercial, Banjo, Metro Finance, Prospa — among others on our panel of 18+. Your broker checks fit before anything is submitted.
Key terms
Fit-out finance
Fit-out finance is lending for the non-removable works and fixtures that make a commercial tenancy operational, repaid over a term matched to the lease because the works have no resale value if the premises are vacated.
Lease term alignment
Lease term alignment is the practice of setting the finance term no longer than the remaining lease including exercisable options, so a business never pays for a fit-out in premises it has left.