Business loans in Victoria

Ask a Melbourne accountant what has changed most for Victorian business owners lately and the answer is rarely the loans themselves. It’s the state settings around them. A new tax on commercial land, a payroll tax threshold that has moved twice in two years, and a sizeable gap between city and country payroll tax all feed into what a lender sees when it reads your numbers.

So this page starts with the Victorian rules, then turns to the finance. We don’t run an office in Victoria (or anywhere else), and you won’t need to visit one: lenders here assess and settle almost everything online.

Three Victorian rules that change a lender’s maths

Before comparing loan products, it’s worth knowing what is different about the Victorian landscape:

1. Commercial property duty is being phased out. Since 1 July 2024, a qualifying sale of commercial or industrial land can bring that property into the commercial and industrial property tax regime.
2. Payroll tax has its own threshold and a regional discount. The tax-free threshold is $1m a year, and eligible regional Victorian employers pay a fraction of the metropolitan rate.
3. Caveats can be challenged by lapsing notice. That’s relevant if you’re borrowing against property or dealing with someone else’s caveat on your title.

Each one is explained below, with what it means for a loan.

Buying commercial property in Victoria after the duty reform

The State Revenue Office describes the commercial and industrial property tax (CIPT) as an annual tax on the land value of commercial and industrial property, progressively replacing stamp duty. In broad terms it works like this:

• A property usually enters the scheme when it changes hands in a qualifying transaction dated 1 July 2024 or later, provided it keeps a commercial or industrial use.
• The buyer on that entry transaction pays duty one final time. The government offers eligible buyers a loan to spread that duty bill over time, rather than paying it all at settlement.
• Later qualifying sales of that property don’t attract stamp duty.
• The annual CIPT becomes payable 10 years after the property entered the scheme.

For borrowers, the effect is real. If you’re buying a factory in Dandenong South or a shop in Ballarat that’s already in the scheme, you may not need to fund stamp duty at all, which can cut the cash you need at settlement substantially. If you’re buying a property that enters the scheme with your purchase, you’ll face the duty once but may be able to spread it. Either way, ask your conveyancer early which category the property falls into and give the answer to your lender, because it changes your deposit, your settlement figures and your long-term holding costs.

Our guide to stamp duty on business property purchases compares how the states treat it, and commercial property loans covers the finance itself.

Payroll tax: the $1m threshold and the country discount

Since 1 July 2025 the Victorian threshold sits at $1m in annual wages. The standard rate is 4.85% of wages above the deduction, while eligible regional Victorian employers pay 1.2125%, a quarter of the standard rate. Employers with Australian taxable wages between $3m and $5m have their deduction phased down, and above $5m there’s no deduction. A separate mental health and wellbeing surcharge applies to very large payrolls over $10m.

Why lenders care:

• It’s a fixed cost. When a lender tests serviceability, payroll tax comes off your profit before any repayment is allowed for.
• It’s a debt they check. Overdue State Revenue Office amounts are treated a lot like overdue ATO amounts. Our page on ATO tax debt business loans explains how lenders weigh government debts.
• It’s a growth trigger. A Bendigo or Shepparton business hiring past the threshold faces a much smaller bill than a Richmond business of the same size, and lenders forecasting your cash flow will factor that in.

If a payroll tax bill is what’s squeezing you this month, let us know the amount and the due date. It’s a quick form and nothing gets checked against your credit history for sending it.

Borrowing against property in Victoria

Land Use Victoria keeps the state’s Torrens register, and most dealings are now lodged electronically. That speed is what makes a caveat loan or a second mortgage business loan practical when time is short.

A Victorian detail worth knowing: an interested party, such as the owner, can ask the Registrar to issue a lapsing notice on a caveat. The notice gives the caveator a period of at least 30 days, and unless they tell the Registrar that court proceedings are on foot, the caveat lapses. A properly documented loan caveat, lodged with your agreement and withdrawn on repayment, shouldn’t cause trouble. A caveat you don’t recognise, on the other hand, is something to raise with your solicitor before it stalls a refinance.

To see how much equity your property might support, try the LVR calculator before you talk to any lender.

Where Victorian businesses borrow, region by region

• Inner Melbourne: hospitality, creative and professional services, retail. Fit-outs, working capital through winter, and expansion into a second site. See business loans in Melbourne.
• South-east Melbourne (Dandenong, Braeside, Keysborough): one of the country’s biggest manufacturing belts. Machinery, forklifts, trucks and factory purchases. Our south-east Melbourne page covers it in detail.
• Geelong and the Surf Coast: advanced manufacturing, health, construction and tourism.
• Goulburn Valley and the Murray: irrigated fruit, dairy and food processing, with very seasonal cash flow. Harvest timing shapes what kind of repayment schedule works.
• Western District and Wimmera: wool, beef, dairy and grain, often borrowing against rural land.
• Gippsland: energy, timber, dairy and an economy in transition as coal power winds down.

Seasonality is the theme outside Melbourne. A loan that lets you repay more after harvest or vintage usually suits better than fixed weekly debits.

A worked Victorian example

Hypothetical numbers for illustration.

A food packaging business in Keysborough has outgrown its leased warehouse and agrees to buy a $2.4m industrial building nearby. The vendor bought it in 2025, so it’s already in the CIPT scheme and the purchase attracts no stamp duty. That removes a six-figure cost the owners had budgeted for.

Their bank agrees to fund most of the price but needs eight to ten weeks for valuations and credit approval, while the contract settles in six. To hold the deal together, the owners use a short bridging loan secured against the new building and their home in Mount Waverley, then refinance into the bank loan once it’s approved. They compare the total dollar cost of the bridge against the risk of losing the deposit, using the bridging loan calculator, and decide the bridge is worth paying for.

What can the Victorian Small Business Commission do?

The Victorian Small Business Commission (VSBC) offers low-cost dispute resolution, including mediation for retail lease disputes and other business disputes. If mediation doesn’t settle a matter, either party can request a certificate to take it to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

As at October 2026, the VSBC’s own website warns of delays of around 20 weeks for enquiries and applications. That’s useful to know. If a landlord or supplier dispute is causing a cash shortfall, the VSBC can still help resolve it, but it won’t fix a payment due next Friday. Owners sometimes run both tracks at once: a short loan to cover the shortfall while the mediation grinds on.

Start with your bank, then look wider

Victoria’s banks, mutuals and challenger banks are often the cheapest money you’ll find, and if one of them offers you a sensible loan you should give it real weight. They do, however, have strict boxes. Newer businesses, owners with an ATO or State Revenue Office debt, uneven seasonal income and anyone needing money within days often fall outside them.

That doesn’t make you a poor borrower. It means you need a lender built for your situation. Our guides to a bank that’s taking too long and Big Four bank alternatives show where Victorian owners usually turn next.

Get a straight answer for your Victorian business

Whether it’s a factory in Dandenong, a café in Fitzroy or a dairy in Gippsland, the right loan comes down to your security, your trading record and what you need the money for, not your postcode.

Share those three details with us and the legwork becomes ours. Completing the enquiry is a sixty-second job, and it triggers no credit check whatsoever. We keep your information in-house instead of circulating it to every funder in the market; someone on our team works through the specifics and phones you to talk options. The closer your answers are to reality (the true amount, the real deadline, any property you own), the better our first suggestion will be.

Ask about finance for your Victorian business →