Trusts and companies suit tax and asset protection, and make the lending more involved.
Buying through a trust or company means that entity, not you personally, owns the property, which changes how lenders assess the loan. A narrower group of lenders than for personal borrowing will consider it.
Lenders want the trust deed or company constitution, the entity’s financials and personal guarantees from the directors or trustees, and some cap the loan-to-value ratio lower. Planning the structure with your accountant before pre-approval keeps the lender list as wide as possible.
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What moves the number
Choose any that apply. Each shows roughly how much it changes the figure, the way a lender’s assessment would.
is an indicative borrowing figure at today’s typical rates. Lenders typically count around 80% of rental income, which is why an investment purchase can lift your number, your real figure comes from a proper assessment.
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The full executed trust deed with any amendments. The corporate trustee's details and ASIC extract. Tax returns for the trust and the guarantors, typically two years, with one-year options at some lenders where the structure is new.
Evidence of how income flows: distributions, director salaries, retained profits. And clarity on the deposit's source, because money moving between personal and trust accounts needs a clean paper trail.
A deed without borrowing powers, discovered at assessment. A lender chosen for its advertised rate that quietly doesn't lend to trusts at all, the application dies late and expensively. Distributions counted as income by the borrower but not by the lender's policy.
Negative gearing benefits assumed inside a discretionary trust, where losses are generally trapped rather than offset against personal income, a tax conversation that should have happened first. And timing: establishing the structure the week of the purchase, when deeds, ABNs and bank accounts all have lead times.
No, a meaningful slice of the market doesn't lend to trusts, and among those that do, deed requirements, acceptable trustee arrangements and income treatment all differ.
That's the practical reason trust files start with lender selection rather than a rate comparison: the sharpest advertised rate is irrelevant at a lender that will never assess the file.
Often close to it, many lenders price trust lending on the same investment-loan books, sometimes with a modest loading or higher fees for the extra assessment work.
The bigger financial differences usually sit in the tax treatment and land tax position of the structure itself, which is exactly why the accountant belongs in the conversation before the contract.
A newly established trust with no history can still borrow, the serviceability comes from the guarantors' personal income and the property's rent, not from the trust's trading record. What the lender needs is the structure documented properly and the people behind it strong enough to carry the loan.
Almost always yes, lenders require personal guarantees from directors and frequently from beneficiaries, so the asset-protection benefits of the structure don't extend to the loan itself. Anyone told otherwise should read the guarantee documents closely and take independent legal advice, which lenders generally require anyway.
That is a question for your accountant and solicitor, not a broker: trusts bring establishment costs, ongoing compliance, different land tax treatment and trapped losses, alongside their protections.
What we contribute is the lending consequence of each option, priced, so the structure decision is made with the full picture rather than half of it.
Thirty minutes with Charles, before or after the structure exists: which lenders suit it, what they'll require, and how the lending and tax conversations fit together.
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General information only, not credit, tax, legal or financial advice. Structure selection is a matter for your accountant and solicitor; lending through structures is subject to individual assessment, deed review and lender approval.
Official sources for the figures on this page: ATO, reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax. Scheme rules change; the official pages are the final word. Checked against these sources on 12 October 2026.
