Mortgage House: commercial property and development lending from a 1986 non-bank

Most owners who buy their premises focus on the deposit and the repayment. The detail that bites later is the annual review: a yearly check of your financials that lets the lender reprice the loan, ask for more security or call a breach. Mortgage House lists “no annual reviews” as a feature of its commercial loans, and for an owner-occupier planning to stay put for a decade, that’s worth more than it sounds.

Mortgage House was founded in Sydney in 1986 by Ken Sayer and is now headquartered in North Sydney. It’s best known for home loans, but runs a commercial and development lending arm too. This profile is drawn from its website as at October 2026.

What’s on offer for business borrowers

Commercial property loans

• Terms up to 30 years
• Principal and interest, interest-only or blended repayment plans
• A 100% offset account with real-time payments
• No annual reviews
• A Visa debit card and digital-first application
• Property types: offices, factories, warehouses, retail, residential in commercial zoning, rural, mixed-use, and commercial property in an SMSF

Property development finance

• Residential projects up to four units on one title, assessed on a streamlined basis with staged drawdowns and quantity surveyor checks
• Commercial and larger residential projects of five or more units, with capitalised interest, presale or prelease tests where relevant, and milestone reporting
• Land banking and staged subdivisions

SME business loans and SMSF loans are listed too, but the SME page doesn’t publish amounts, security requirements or criteria.

What’s missing matters. Mortgage House publishes no loan amounts, maximum LVR or credit criteria for commercial loans. Its commercial page illustrates LVR with a simple 80% example but doesn’t commit to a ceiling.

Why the offset and review features matter

A 100% offset on a commercial loan is uncommon. On a business premises loan, every dollar of cash reserves sitting in the offset reduces the balance interest is charged on, while staying available for wages or a tax bill. For a business that keeps a healthy buffer, the interest saving can be meaningful, and the money is never locked away.

No annual reviews reduce one source of uncertainty. Commercial loans at many lenders come with yearly reviews tied to financial covenants. Miss a covenant after a soft year and the lender can reprice or demand changes. Mortgage House’s commercial page says it doesn’t do these reviews. Confirm what the loan contract itself says about covenants and default triggers, but the stated feature is a real point of difference. Our loan covenant entry explains what reviews typically test.

Thirty years keeps repayments low. Paired with an interest-only option in the early years, it can make premises ownership affordable for a business that would otherwise keep renting. Test whether the property’s cash flow covers repayments in our debt service coverage ratio calculator.

Working out whether to buy your premises or keep leasing? Share the numbers with us and we’ll point you at lenders that suit owner-occupiers.

How Mortgage House looks at development projects

Its development page is unusually open about what it wants to see:

What it asks for	What that means for you
A feasibility study with sensitivities	Show what happens if sale prices fall or costs rise
A primary and secondary exit	Sales, refinance or hold, with a backup
A build program and fixed-price contract	Fixed-price building contracts are viewed as lower risk
Presales, case by case	Depends on location, scale and the exit plan
Equity contribution	An equity investor option exists if your deposit is tight

Two cautions come straight from its own page. Owner-builders face more conservative LVR, interest cover and contingency expectations. And bad credit or low doc loans are unlikely to be available for developers. Our construction and development finance page explains how lenders size these facilities against total development cost.

Who Mortgage House suits

• Owner-occupiers buying premises who value long terms, an offset and no yearly review.
• Investors in mixed-use or commercial-zoned residential property, which some lenders avoid.
• Small-to-mid developers with a solid feasibility, a fixed-price builder and a clear exit.
• SMSF trustees buying business premises for the fund.

It’s less suited to borrowers who need unsecured working capital, equipment finance, or a low doc development loan, or anyone with significant credit issues on a development application. For credit-impaired borrowers, our bad credit business loans guide is a better starting point.

As always, if your financials are clean and your bank offers competitive terms on a premises loan, take that offer seriously. A non-bank like Mortgage House is a strong alternative when the bank’s terms, reviews or property appetite don’t suit.

Questions to ask Mortgage House

1. What’s the maximum LVR for my property type and location?
2. What’s the total dollar cost over the first five years, including any fees on the offset account?
3. Does the loan contract contain financial covenants, even without annual reviews?
4. For development, what contingency and presale levels will you need for my project?
5. Can the commercial loan be arranged through a broker, or only directly?

If Mortgage House says no

• Property type outside its appetite: compare specialist non-bank peers such as Bluestone, La Trobe Financial and Liberty.
• Income documentation is the problem: see low doc business loans.
• Settlement is due before longer-term finance lands: a short bridging finance facility can carry you across.
• Development equity is short: mezzanine finance can sit behind senior debt.

Our guide to buying commercial property compares the main ways to fund premises.

Ready to own the building you trade from?

Mortgage House is a reminder that the features in the fine print, such as an offset, no yearly review or a 30-year term, can matter as much as the headline price. The right premises loan for you depends on the property, your cash reserves and how long you plan to stay.

Our enquiry form is about a minute’s effort. Sending it leaves your credit history untouched, since nothing gets checked at this stage, and your details aren’t sold on or shared with a long list of lenders. Someone on our team reads it and phones you to discuss the property. Fill it in with the actual purchase price, deposit and trading figures, and the lender we suggest should suit from the outset.

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