Commercial property lending rewards brokers who ask the right questions. Richard Chesworth, head of specialised distribution at Bluestone Home Loans, argues the difference between an application that clears credit quickly and one that stalls comes down to the story a broker builds. Broker participation in commercial, business or asset finance is rising, and shifting market conditions are prompting investors to look beyond residential property. Brokers prepared to ask better questions of their clients are best placed to capture that ground.
Far more than a loan-to-value ratio. Tenant details, lease terms and a read of the local strip all shape a lender's appetite. 'Brokers will come to us and say, will you lend 75% on this property? I don't know, you've only shared one aspect!' says Richard Chesworth, head of specialised distribution at Bluestone Home Loans. Commercial lending is not like residential, where property type and condition follow a familiar pattern. Location matters in ways that shift over time: Chesworth points to Oxford Street, Paddington, where shops struggled when Westfield Bondi opened, then recovered as the street found its feet again. A complete picture of the asset, its tenants and its surrounds gives credit teams what they need to make a decision.
Credit teams fill in the blanks a broker leaves empty. 'Give us the information to help, because if the broker doesn't give us the information, we're going to make the assumptions. And it's not sales making those assumptions, it's the credit people,' Chesworth says. He describes a regional South Australian deal where a business wanted to borrow against a non-metro commercial property. The broker had established that one fund member ran the business and another was an accountant with local market knowledge. 'The broker asked a lot of questions and could really build a case,' Chesworth says. 'Plus, if the lease is structured the right way, the asset is going to wash its own face.' The story, not the spreadsheet, is what moves a deal.
Bluestone Home Loans has noticed a shift since the ban on new limited recourse borrowing arrangements for residential property. Buyers who expected to purchase another residential asset are pausing to consider commercial instead. 'We are already having feedback, particularly in the SMSF space, of people who were going to go down resi and are now looking at commercial,' Chesworth says. 'The shift is happening, but these things take time.' Media coverage has occasionally run ahead of settled figures, and Chesworth is wary of reading too much into headline sentiment. 'I would never oversensationalise a market for the sake of sensationalising it,' he says. The opportunity for brokers is real, but it will take time to translate into settled volumes.
Chesworth draws a sharp distinction. '[For a broker and an SMSF,] residential SMSF lending is nice to have, whereas commercial SMSF lending is a must-have,' he says. The logic traces back to how compulsory super interacts with small business ownership. A business owner's super fund can acquire the commercial premises their business operates from, provided the arrangement is properly advised and structured on commercial terms. 'Rather than paying rent to a landlord, the client is now paying rent on arm's-length commercial terms to their own super fund,' Chesworth explains. 'As well as the contributions, the rent is going in there and that's helping build retirement assets.' That dual accumulation, contributions plus rental income, makes the structure compelling for business-owning SMSF members.
Banks retain a strong presence but are retreating from certain segments. The pitch from non-banks is not about rate. 'The conversation in the commercial world isn't about price, it's about value. What am I achieving through this transaction?' Chesworth says. Timing is often decisive: a business with a live opportunity cannot always wait for a full financial assessment, particularly if current accounts are not yet available. 'Through Bluestone, we can do the alt-doc process, whether that be BAS statements or accountant's letters, providing an approval now, so the client won't miss that opportunity,' Chesworth says. Open accreditation removes a further friction point. 'If you're accredited with Bluestone Home Loans, you're accredited to all our offers. We don't want to use accreditation as a barrier to do business,' he says.
The MFAA's 2026 State of Mortgage and Finance Broking Report shows 11,785 brokers already active in commercial, business or asset finance. Those who stay residential-only risk being outgrown by their own clients. 'The missed opportunities are with brokers who are wary of stepping into new territory,' Chesworth says. 'We've all got customers, and our customers' needs are growing. We've got to grow with those needs. If a broker doesn't grow with their customers, they're going to lose their customers and become irrelevant.' Brokers should work alongside accountants and financial advisers rather than offer property advice themselves. The commercial product does the work once the structure is right. Curiosity is the broker's only true entry cost.
Chesworth's main concern looking toward 2027 is servicing capacity. 'We're in a rising interest rate environment, so the cost of funds is going up, and it comes back to what industry the customer is in, and whether it's an investment or for their business,' he says. The ABS Consumer Price Index for August 2026 recorded an annual change of 3.5%, down from 4.6% in February, though monthly movement turned negative in August. Commercial assets structured well can behave differently from the negatively geared residential investments many Australians hold. 'The commercial property has a lot greater chance of washing its own face, of taking care of itself with the rental income,' Chesworth says. The numbers matter. The story behind them matters just as much. Brokers looking to build deeper expertise across commercial and specialist lending can access MPA's premium sponsored reports. Found this useful? Share it with your network on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Richard Chesworth: head of specialised distribution, Bluestone Home Loans.