Equipment Finance
Funding for the equipment that runs your business, from forklifts to full production lines.
Equipment finance covers everything your business buys that isn't a vehicle or heavy machinery. Forklifts, manufacturing machinery, construction equipment, mining gear and more.
With access to 50+ lenders we match your purchase to the right funder for fast approvals, whether you're buying new from a supplier, used from a dealer, or picking something up at auction.
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How Equipment Finance Works
Equipment finance works differently to machinery finance, and understanding the difference saves you time and money. Yellow goods like excavators and dozers have deep resale markets, so lenders are comfortable lending against the machine itself. Most business equipment doesn't have that. A packaging line or a CNC machine is worth a lot to the business running it and much less to anyone else. That changes how lenders assess the deal.
With equipment, lenders put more weight on the business behind the purchase. Time trading, revenue, and on bigger tickets your financials. The same borrower can get an easier approval on a $150k excavator than a $150k production line, purely because of how each asset holds value. This is why matching the lender to the asset type matters so much in this category. Some funders are sharp on materials handling, others are strong on manufacturing plant, and plenty won't touch specialised gear at all.
Most equipment deals are written as a chattel mortgage. You own the equipment from day one, the lender takes security over it, and repayments run over a fixed term, typically three to five years. Because most equipment doesn't carry strong resale value at the end of the term, the majority of these deals amortise to zero rather than running a balloon. Balloons still have their place on assets with a genuine used market, forklifts being the obvious one, but on specialised equipment a balloon just leaves you owing money on an asset that's worth little. We structure around that from the start.
If your purchase is an excavator, dozer, tractor or other heavy gear with strong resale value, you're in different territory with different lender appetite. That's covered on our machinery finance page.
What Equipment You Can Finance
We arrange equipment finance from around $10k up to $500k and beyond. New and used, dealer, supplier, private sale and auction. Age limits are tighter in this category than for machinery. Most lenders want equipment no older than roughly 10 to 12 years at the end of the loan term, and some specialised categories are effectively new or near new only. Private sales are workable but the lender panel shrinks, and funders will often want an inspection or valuation because equipment is harder to price than machinery with published sales data. Buying through a dealer or supplier is the smooth path. Here's how the main categories break down.
Forklifts and Materials Handling
Forklifts are the most financed asset in the equipment category and one of the friendliest. There's a genuine used market, which means more lender appetite, more flexibility on age, and workable balloon structures. Electric, LPG and diesel counterbalance units, reach trucks, order pickers and telehandlers all fit here. Deal sizes run from $10k used units to $100k+ for new high capacity machines. For new businesses, a forklift is often the most achievable first equipment purchase on finance.
Construction Equipment
This covers the construction gear that sits outside heavy earthmoving. Compaction equipment, generators, lighting towers, concrete equipment, attachments, laser screeds, site accommodation and access equipment like scissor lifts and boom lifts. Lender appetite is solid on recognised brands with a resale market and thinner on specialised or older gear, so lender selection does the heavy lifting. If you're after excavators, dozers or loaders themselves, those sit under machinery finance with dedicated pages including excavator finance.
Manufacturing Machinery
CNC machines, laser cutters, presses, packaging lines, food processing equipment, printing equipment and workshop machinery. These are the deals where the business case matters most, because resale markets are thin and lenders lean on your trading history and financials, particularly above $150k. New equipment from recognised suppliers gets the best run. Used and imported manufacturing gear can absolutely be financed, but the funder pool narrows and structuring the application properly becomes the difference between an approval and a decline.
Agricultural Equipment
Fixed and specialised ag equipment crosses into this category. Irrigation systems, grain handling equipment, silos, dairy and shed equipment, and processing gear. Tractors, headers and self propelled ag machinery sit with agricultural machinery finance, where seasonal repayment structuring is covered in detail. For fixed ag equipment, the same seasonal structures can apply, and we match the deal to lenders who understand farm income rather than funders who want twelve even repayments from a business that gets paid twice a year.
Mining and Resources Equipment
Screening and crushing plant, drill support equipment, dewatering pumps, compressors and site equipment servicing the mining and resources sector. Deals here skew larger and lenders want to see contract backing or a solid trading history in the sector. Auction purchases are common when mine sites turn over gear, and we regularly arrange finance with the settlement timeframes auctions demand.
Who Equipment Finance Is For
Equipment finance suits any Australian business buying gear to make money with. Warehousing and logistics operators, manufacturers, builders and trades, farmers, civil contractors and mining services businesses make up most of what we write.
Established businesses with two or more years of trading and clean credit have the full lender panel available and can usually go low doc. That means no financials for standard, readily saleable equipment up to around $100k to $150k, with GST registration and in many cases property ownership doing the talking. Specialised or older equipment pushes deals into full doc territory regardless of size, because the lender is backing your business rather than the asset.
New ABNs and startups have a harder run in equipment than they would in machinery, for exactly the reason above: the asset doesn't carry the deal, so the lender needs comfort elsewhere. It's still very achievable. A deposit, director property backing, industry experience or an accountant letter each open doors, and picking the one lender out of fifty who actually wants new ABN equipment deals is the whole game. Credit issues are the same story. Defaults and past troubles don't automatically end the conversation, they just narrow the field, and knowing the field is our job.
Why Use a Broker for Equipment Finance
Equipment is the category where broker value is easiest to see, because lender appetite varies more here than anywhere else. Every funder publishes a rate, but the real differences are buried in policy. Which lender goes to 12 years on used equipment. Which one does private sale manufacturing gear. Which one has a minimum deal size that quietly knocks out your $15k forklift. Which one wants financials at $100k and which one waives them at $150k. Walk into your bank and you get one answer from one policy. We already know the answers across the panel before we submit anything.
The second thing a broker fixes is structure. Term length matched to the equipment's working life, balloon or no balloon based on real resale value rather than a lower repayment that stings later, repayments shaped around how your business actually earns. And because we submit deals to these lenders every week, applications go in packaged the way each credit team wants to see them, which is what fast approvals actually come from.
Ready to fund your next equipment purchase?
Tell us what you're buying and we'll come back with options from 50+ lenders, usually the same day.
Getting Equipment Finance
Step 1: Tell us about the equipment and your business
A quick call or the form below. What you're buying, roughly what it costs, where it's coming from and how long you've been trading. Five minutes covers it.
Step 2: We match the lender and structure
We identify which lenders want your asset type, your deal size and your business profile, then structure the term, deposit and balloon to fit. You get options with real numbers, not a single take it or leave it quote. For straightforward equipment this happens within a business day.
Step 3: Approval and settlement
Standard equipment deals are typically approved within 24 to 48 hours of submission. Settlement follows once invoices and documents are in order, and we handle the supplier, dealer or auction house directly. Specialised or high value equipment can take a few days longer if the lender wants an inspection or valuation.
Equipment Finance FAQs
Get Your Free Equipment Finance Quote
Tell us what you're buying and we'll match it against 50+ lenders. No impact on your credit score to get a quote, and no obligation.