Esteb Capital: direct private lending against property, priced by LVR tier

Esteb Capital has two front doors, and which one you walk through changes almost everything about your loan. The direct door is Esteb Capital itself: a private lender for business and commercial borrowers, where the property and your exit plan carry the application. The second door is Esteb & Co, a sister brand under Australian Credit Licence 389087, which handles brokered and consumer lending with fuller financial assessment. This profile covers the direct business lending, as published on Esteb Capital’s website as at October 2026.

The business is young. Its website says it was registered in 2025, and the loan history it shows (30 loans, $33m+ deployed, 28 repaid in full) comes from the founder’s personal lending book between 1994 and 2017 rather than from Esteb Capital as a company. That’s useful context, not a red flag: plenty of sound private lenders start this way. It just means you should ask how the loans are funded today.

What does Esteb Capital lend for?

Every direct loan is interest-only and must be for a business, commercial or investment purpose. The website lists four products:

Product	What it does	Published detail (October 2026)
Private lending	Cash out of property equity for working capital, deposits, supplier bills, settlement shortfalls, fit-outs, land and subdivision	$100k to $5m direct; terms of 1 to 24 months
Commercial bridging	Buy before you sell, finish before you refinance, or hold while long-term finance is arranged	First mortgage; typically 3 to 18 months
Development finance	Site acquisition, construction, subdivision and residual stock	First mortgage; repaid as lots settle
Mezzanine debt	A second-ranking loan behind a senior lender’s first mortgage	Combined LVR up to 75% to 80%; debt only, no equity

It also says it will lend against vehicles, equipment and boats where that fits the deal, and that caveat loans are available. If you’re new to the language here, our explainers on mezzanine finance and bridging finance walk through how each is structured.

How do the LVR tiers change your loan?

This is the detail most borrowers skip, and it’s the most useful thing on Esteb Capital’s site. The lender publishes three security tiers, and both the maximum term and the establishment fee move with them:

• First mortgage at 65% LVR or below: terms of 6 to 24 months, with the lowest establishment fee band.
• First mortgage between 65% and 75% LVR: terms of 6 to 18 months, with a higher fee band.
• Second mortgage or caveat, combined LVR of 80% or below: terms of 3 to 12 months, with the highest fee band.

The site calls under 60% the “sweet spot”. Put simply, stretching the LVR on a single property hurts in two ways: you pay more to set the loan up, and you get less time to complete your exit. Before you settle on a figure, run it through our LVR calculator. Sometimes borrowing slightly less lands you in a lower tier and buys six more months of breathing room.

A worked example

Say a builder owns an investment unit valued at $1.2m with a $420k bank loan on it, and needs $250k for a cash flow gap while two progress claims are paid.

• Existing debt plus the new loan: $670k, or about 56% of the value.
• As a second mortgage, that sits well inside the 80% combined limit, but the term would be 3 to 12 months.
• Had the builder chosen to refinance the whole $670k as a single first mortgage, it would fall in the 65%-or-below tier, with a term of up to 24 months.

Neither option is automatically better. The second mortgage leaves the bank loan alone. The refinance costs more to arrange but gives a longer runway. Our caveat loan vs second mortgage comparison helps you think through that choice.

Who is Esteb Capital a good fit for?

Going by its own criteria, the direct lending suits:

• Developers and builders whose project doesn’t fit a bank’s construction template, including those holding residual stock after completion.
• Business owners with property equity who need a lump sum fast and can show how it will be repaid.
• Investors and opportunistic buyers who need to settle before longer-term finance is approved.

It’s not built for household borrowing, owner-occupied purchases, consolidating personal debts or anyone without a clear way out of the loan. Its website points those borrowers to Esteb & Co.

Weighing whether a private lender is the right tier at all? Tell us about the deal and we’ll give you an honest read on which lender tier suits, without anything appearing on your credit file.

What does Esteb Capital look at?

Its published assessment is short: security, LVR, purpose, identity and exit. The question its own guide asks is whether the lender gets its capital back from the property if everything goes wrong. That means:

1. The property: type, location, a valuation if one is instructed, and proof that you own it.
2. The debt already on it: every mortgage and caveat, because the combined figure sets your tier.
3. Your purpose: it has to be genuinely commercial.
4. Your exit: a bank refinance, a sale or a completed project, with evidence. Our glossary entry on exit strategies explains what lenders mean by a credible one.

The process runs in four steps: an enquiry (the form promises a callback within one business day), an indicative decision within 48 hours, valuation and documents with the solicitor instructed in parallel, then settlement. Interest accrues from day one.

What should you ask before you sign?

Esteb Capital’s own guide flags a clause worth reading closely: some private loan contracts require an extra month of interest on discharge, even when you give notice. Check your draft for that wording. Then get answers on these:

• Adding up the establishment fee, legal costs and the discharge fee, what will the loan cost in dollars? The site’s illustrative deal used $5,000 in legal fees and a $2,500 discharge fee.
• Does the contract charge a minimum number of months’ interest when the loan is cleared early?
• What do default interest and late fees look like?
• Is the loan funded from Esteb Capital’s own capital or by investors, and does that affect extensions?

Our loan cost comparison calculator puts two offers side by side once you have them in writing.

If Esteb Capital isn’t the right match

A no from one private lender is usually about fit, not a final verdict. Some common reasons and where to look next:

• The LVR is too high. A caveat loan on another property, or adding a second security, may close the gap.
• The amount is under $100k. Lenders with lower minimums, such as Assurity Capital (from $50k) or XCEDA Capital for smaller business loans, may suit better.
• You need a longer term than 24 months. A first mortgage business loan from a non-bank lender often runs for years, not months.
• You have no property at all. Look at business loans without property instead.

Deciding what to do next

Esteb Capital publishes more about its pricing structure than most private lenders, and that openness makes it easier to compare. But the tier your deal lands in depends on numbers only you hold: the value, the existing debt, how long the exit will really take.

Our enquiry form is the quickest way to test those numbers. Filling it in takes roughly sixty seconds, and no credit search is run just because you asked. We keep your file in-house; it isn’t fired off to a dozen funders at once. Someone experienced in property-secured deals studies your scenario personally and phones you. Put the true valuation and every existing mortgage or caveat on the form, so the tier we point you to first is one you can actually use.

Check which lending tier fits your deal →