First mortgage finance on the Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast runs on small business. Around 95% of businesses here are small enterprises, on the council's economic figures, and a large share of the workforce sits in tourism, hospitality and the trades, which means a lot of self-employed and irregular income. That is exactly the income a bank's credit engine struggles with, however strong the underlying asset or the deposit behind it.

Add a piece of non-standard security, a short-lease commercial property, a mixed-use building, a rural-residential holding in the hinterland, and a perfectly sound borrower gets a no. A private first mortgage weighs the property and the exit first, which is why it clears deals that stall in a bank queue over a paperwork technicality rather than a real risk.

A private first mortgage sits in the same senior position a bank first mortgage would, but it is placed with a private lender who can assess the deal on its merits and settle quickly. It suits self-employed borrowers, a purchase that has to settle before a bank could ever move, a refinance, or property that sits outside a bank's comfort zone.

It is usually interest-only over a term of a few months to a couple of years, priced to the risk and the loan-to-value ratio. Where you want to draw further against the same property behind an existing first loan, that is a second mortgage rather than this.

We place first mortgages against Gold Coast property of most kinds, from beachfront homes to hinterland acreage and commercial buildings, right across the city and out through South East Queensland.