Business term loans
$10,000 up to $5,000,000+ for the right borrower. Most facilities under $250,000 need no property security, funded in 24-48 hours.
General information only
A business term loan is a lump sum you borrow and repay in fixed instalments over a set period. It’s the simplest form of business finance, and the one most people mean when they say “business loan”.
The part that trips people up isn’t the product. It’s working out which of the 80-plus non-bank lenders on the market wants to lend to a borrower and a business like yours. Apply to the wrong ones first and that gets harder, not easier.
Do you need property security for a business term loan?
It depends on the number. Under $250,000, security is usually a director’s guarantee: your signature, not your house. The better-priced lenders on our panel will often want a general security agreement (a claim over business assets, not personal property) alongside it. Some will lend right up near the $250,000 mark with no property backing at all, and you pay for that in the rate. See our unsecured business loans page for the full picture on what “no security” really covers.
Above $250,000, property security becomes more common, but it doesn’t always mean a mortgage. Some non-bank lenders will take a caveat over property instead: a registered interest that sits behind your existing mortgage, not a full second one. Which applies to you depends on the lender, the amount and the rest of the business. Ask before you assume either way.
Illustrative only, not a quote. Your position depends on the lender, the amount and how the rest of the business stacks up.
How much can you borrow, and for how long?
Business term loans on our panel typically run from $10,000 to $500,000. Terms and repayment structures vary by lender and by how long you’ve been trading. For the right borrower, non-bank lenders go well beyond that, up to $5,000,000 and sometimes further, though at that size property security or a caveat usually comes into it. The table below is a snapshot, not a quote. Your range depends on revenue, trading history and the lender’s appetite that month.
| Loan amount | $10,000-$500,000 typical; up to $5,000,000+ for the right borrower |
| Security | Director’s guarantee under $250,000 (some lenders also want a GSA); property security or a caveat becomes more common above $250,000, more so past $1,000,000 |
| Funding speed | 24-48 hours once documents are in for smaller facilities; larger or secured facilities take longer |
| Repayments | Fixed, set at settlement |
Why work with a broker instead of applying to a bank directly?
Because your bank can only sell you its own product. If you don’t fit it, that’s the end of the conversation. A broker’s job is knowing which lenders on the panel want a file like yours, and which ones not to try first. (More on how a business loan broker works.)
A lender assesses two things together. There’s you as the borrower (credit history, experience, what you’re prepared to guarantee), and there’s the business on paper (trading history, revenue, industry, cash flow). A lender that loves one half and is lukewarm on the other still says no. Matching both halves to the right lender’s appetite is most of what a broker does behind the scenes.
Knowing who not to try first matters more than most owners expect. Over Andrew’s broking career, plenty of business owners have come to him after trying two or three major banks, believing they were more “bankable” than they turned out to be. Each of those applications shows up on their credit file. As MoneySmart’s own guidance puts it, “each application for credit is noted on your credit report” and “too many applications in a short time can lower your credit score.” By the time they call a broker, three declined bank applications have taken some second-tier lenders off the table. Some of those would have said yes the first time round.
It’s a smaller market than people assume, and that’s why it’s easy to get wrong on your own. Ten years ago there were maybe three lenders outside the major banks writing unsecured term loans. Today there are closer to twenty, each with its own credit appetite, pricing tiers and documentation quirks. There’s no directory that ranks them by “who’ll actually say yes to a business like mine”. Nobody’s memorising twenty lender policies. You’d need to be Rain Man.
Non-bank lenders writing unsecured term loans, ten years ago versus today. Tracking every one of their policies is the job a broker exists to do.
Two things people get wrong about term loans
Shotgunning applications hurts you
Applying to two or three banks “just to see” feels safe. It isn’t. Every application lands on your credit file, and a few declines in a row can rule out lenders who would otherwise have said yes.
Banks aren’t always cheaper
Bank term loans aren’t automatically cheaper than non-bank ones. In plenty of cases a non-bank lender’s pricing works out lower once fees are counted, and it’s often the easier lender to grow with as your needs scale.
What do business term loan interest rates look like?
Rates vary by lender, loan amount, security and trading history, so no single number applies across the panel. It’s one of the first things we work out on a call: a real figure for you and your business, not a marketing rate only the strongest applicants ever see. Our business loan calculator lets you model repayments at different rates and terms before you call.
Ecommerce Loans is a finance broker, not a lender. Rates and figures shown are indicative only and subject to individual lender assessment.
Lifted from 4.35% on 29 September 2026. The gap between that number and what you pay is where a broker earns their fee.
Sourced data: RBA
Where do business loan rates sit right now?
That’s the level the RBA reached after a 0.25 percentage point rise on 29 September 2026. It sets the floor, not the price you’ll pay. The gap between the two matters more for a term loan than most facilities, because most term loans run at a fixed rate for the life of the loan.
The RBA’s March 2026 Financial Stability Review makes a point to read before you lock in a rate. Rate changes typically pass through faster to small businesses than to larger corporates, because more small business debt sits on variable rates secured by property, while larger companies more often hedge or issue fixed-rate debt. A fixed-rate term loan is one of the few ways a small business can sit on the other side of that gap, for a set period. Whether that’s worth the trade-off against a variable facility is what we’d work through with you on a call.
Source: RBA cash rate target and RBA Financial Stability Review, March 2026.
So what do businesses actually pay? The RBA publishes that too, in a different table most people never open. These are average business lending rates for July 2026.
| RBA series, July 2026 | Average rate |
|---|---|
| Small business, new loans funded that month | 7.44% p.a. |
| Small business, new fixed-rate loans | 8.11% p.a. |
| Small business, new variable-rate loans | 7.07% p.a. |
| Small business, residentially secured | 6.89% p.a. |
| Medium business, all loans outstanding | 6.21% p.a. |
The row to look at is fixed at 8.11% against variable at 7.07%. Fixing costs about a point more up front. That’s the price of the certainty described above. Whether it’s worth paying depends on what happens to the cash rate over your term, and nobody knows that. So don’t decide with a forecast. Decide with a question: if rates rose a full point, would this loan still be comfortable? If the answer is no, the fixed rate is buying you something real.
Non-bank term loans sit above all of these. The premium buys speed, and the ability to borrow without pledging property. Which trade is right depends on what the money is doing. Work that out before you compare rates.
Source: RBA Statistical Table F7, Business Lending Rates, July 2026 data, published 7 September 2026.
How much are small businesses borrowing?
More than last year, and the growth is broad. Australian small businesses took on $58,660 million in new fixed-term loan commitments across 2025-26, excluding refinancing, up 7.6% on the year before, according to ABS Lending Indicators.
| Small business, new fixed-term commitments | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase of property | $21,751m | $24,743m | +13.8% |
| Plant and equipment finance | $20,650m | $20,755m | +0.5% |
| General business purposes | $5,276m | $5,250m | −0.5% |
| Construction | $2,990m | $3,294m | +10.2% |
| Working capital | $2,190m | $2,836m | +29.5% |
| Total excluding refinancing | $54,527m | $58,660m | +7.6% |
Source: ABS Lending Indicators, table 30, original series, financial years to June. Collected by APRA from lenders covering 95% of business credit outstanding. ABS treats a business as small where the lender’s exposure is under $1 million and turnover is under $50 million.
Two more things from that data. First, external refinancing rose to $7,908 million. That’s a lot of businesses moving an existing facility rather than taking a new one, usually because the original was priced or structured for a business that no longer exists.
Second, the ABS definition. Most term loans on this page sit inside the under-$1 million bracket, so these figures are close to our own market, not a general business credit number.
When is a business term loan not the right call?
If your cash flow is irregular (heavy some months, thin in others), a fixed repayment can be the wrong shape of product. A line of credit or revenue-based facility is usually a better fit. A term loan is also the wrong move if you’re borrowing to cover an ongoing shortfall rather than a one-off purpose. Fixed debt on top of a cash flow problem usually makes the problem worse, not better.
If that sounds like you, say so on the call. We’d rather point you at a line of credit than sell you the wrong loan.
Compare this against
Not sure a term loan is the right shape?
Need to draw funds as you go, not all at once?
A revolving facility lets you draw, repay and redraw, rather than taking one lump sum upfront.
See Lines of credit →Don’t want to put up property security?
Most unsecured facilities are assessed on cash flow and trading history instead.
See Unsecured business loans →Funding one specific piece of equipment or a vehicle?
Asset finance is secured against the thing you’re buying, which usually prices better than general-purpose funding.
See Asset finance →Want the deeper, side-by-side breakdown? Read Term loan vs line of credit →
How do you get a business term loan?
Tell us the basics (what the funding is for, roughly how much, and your ABN) and we take it to the panel without a formal application or a credit check at that stage. Once a lender indicates interest, we walk you through what they’ll want to see before anything goes to a formal application.
Want the numbers first? Try the business loan calculator →
New to working with a broker? See how a business loan broker works →
Give us the basics below and we’ll call you within the hour, or at the time you choose, then come back with the two or three offers worth your time.