Business loans in Western Australia

Ask a Perth lender what it thinks of a WA business and the first thing it checks is often not the business at all. It’s the iron ore price, the gold price, and whether the client’s biggest customer is hiring or laying off. Western Australia’s economy rides the resources cycle harder than any other state, and credit teams price that in. A Welshpool engineering shop, a Port Hedland accommodation operator and a Busselton builder can all be well run and still get very different answers, depending on how exposed their income is to a single mine, a single commodity or a single head contractor.

This page sets out what’s genuinely Western Australian about borrowing for a business: how lenders read the cycle, how property security works under Landgate, how the state’s payroll tax taper changes your numbers, and who to call when a dispute is the real problem. As with every state page in this directory, it’s written by a national team. We don’t run a WA office, and you don’t need one to borrow here.

Why do lenders watch the resources cycle so closely in WA?

Because a large share of WA business income traces back to mining, energy and the contractors that serve them. When prices are strong, contractors grow fast and need equipment finance and working capital to keep up. When a commodity slumps, projects go into care and maintenance, and a supplier that looked rock solid six months ago is suddenly chasing unpaid invoices.

That swing shows up in three questions a credit assessor will almost always ask a WA applicant:

1. How concentrated is your revenue? One client making up most of your turnover is the single biggest worry. Lenders want to see the contract, its end date and the payment terms.
2. Where is the work? Income from a long-life iron ore operation reads differently to income from an early-stage project still waiting on a final investment decision.
3. What happens in the downturn? A business that kept trading through the last slump, even at lower volumes, has a story lenders can rely on. Bring the figures from that period, not just the good years.

None of this means WA is a hard place to borrow. It means you’ll get a faster, better answer if you show a lender you understand your own exposure. For tips on making uneven contract income look predictable on paper, read our page on loans for businesses with irregular income.

How does WA property security work under Landgate?

Landgate keeps the state’s Torrens title register. The change that matters most for borrowers took effect on 7 August 2023: paper duplicate certificates of title stopped being created or issued, and existing duplicates lost their legal effect. The certificate held in Landgate’s register is now the only one that counts.

In practice, that removes an old source of delay. You no longer need to find a paper duplicate that’s been sitting in a drawer or with a previous lender. Instead, a settlement agent, lawyer or lender confirms your identity and your right to deal with the title, and the security is lodged electronically.

That’s helpful for anyone weighing a second mortgage business loan behind a Perth home or a caveat loan for a short, sharp funding need. A couple of WA-specific points are worth knowing:

• Lapsing notices. If a landowner or another registered interest holder wants a caveat removed, they can ask Landgate to issue a lapsing notice. The caveator then has a short window, commonly 21 days, to take court action or lose the caveat. A properly documented loan caveat, lodged with your consent, is built to withstand that. Lenders also keep their address for notices current so nothing slips through.
• Regional values. Lenders know that houses in some mining towns can lose a big slice of their value when the nearby operation scales back. Expect lower maximum loan-to-value ratios and a full valuation for property outside Perth and the larger regional centres. The LVR calculator shows how a lower cap changes what you can access.

How does WA payroll tax change your cash flow?

RevenueWA charges payroll tax at 5.5% on taxable wages once your annual Australian wages pass $1m. The detail that catches growing businesses out is the taper. Your tax-free deduction starts at $1m, then falls by $2 for every $13 of wages above that line, and disappears entirely at $7.5m.

Here’s what that looks like for a business with all its wages in WA:

Annual wages	Deduction	Taxable wages	Payroll tax for the year
$1.0m	$1,000,000	$0	$0
$2.3m	$800,000	$1,500,000	$82,500
$4.25m	$500,000	$3,750,000	$206,250
$7.5m	$0	$7,500,000	$412,500

The jump is steeper than many owners expect. Once you’re registered, the monthly returns arrive regardless of when your own customers settle up, and a lender assessing your application will count payroll tax as a fixed cost. If an overdue payroll tax or BAS bill is what’s driving the search for finance, our page on ATO tax debt business loans explains how lenders weigh government debts and why a clear plan matters more than the size of the debt.

If the numbers above look uncomfortably familiar, outline your WA situation for us. It’s a sixty-second form, and enquiring leaves your credit history alone.

Which parts of WA borrow, and for what?

Region	Main activity	What owners commonly fund
Perth metro (Osborne Park, Malaga, Welshpool, Kewdale)	Trades, logistics, light manufacturing, professional services	Vehicles, warehouse fit-outs, working capital between contracts
Kwinana, Henderson and Rockingham	Heavy industry, marine and defence engineering	Machinery, contract mobilisation, invoice finance
Pilbara	Iron ore, gas and the services around them	Light vehicles, plant, accommodation and housing for staff
Goldfields-Esperance	Gold and nickel mining services, exploration support	Drill rigs, earthmoving gear, bridging cash while invoices clear
Wheatbelt and Great Southern	Grain, sheep, cattle, agricultural services	Harvest working capital, machinery, rural property
South West (Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River)	Tourism, wine, construction, dairy	Seasonal cash flow, renovations, cellar door and venue fit-outs
Kimberley	Tourism, pastoral, Aboriginal enterprises	Vehicles, dry-season stock, equipment

The Pilbara and Goldfields each get closer attention in business loans in the Pilbara and business loans in Kalgoorlie. Farming businesses in the Wheatbelt face a different set of questions, mostly about harvest timing and rural land as security; our farmers’ business loans page goes through them.

Where does the Small Business Development Corporation help?

WA’s Small Business Commissioner also heads the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC). Saj Abdoolakhan has held the role since May 2025. The SBDC doesn’t lend, but it offers something useful for owners who are about to borrow because someone else hasn’t paid: a low-cost dispute resolution service for disputes with other businesses or with government agencies, with subsidised formal mediation for cases that don’t settle through case management. The Commissioner can also investigate unfair practices.

A surprising number of finance enquiries start with a dispute rather than a growth plan: a head contractor holding back a progress claim, a landlord pressing for outgoings, a supplier changing terms. Before you borrow to cover a gap someone else created, it’s worth asking whether the gap can be closed another way.

A worked example from Kewdale

A fictional business; the figures are for illustration.

A Kewdale transport company runs a dozen trucks servicing mine sites in the Goldfields. It has just won a two-year haulage contract that needs three more prime movers, worth about $780k all up, plus roughly $150k of extra fuel, tyres and wages before the first monthly payment arrives on 45-day terms. Total wages will rise from $2.1m to about $2.6m.

The owners might structure it this way:

• Equipment finance over the three prime movers, secured on the trucks themselves and registered on the PPSR, with repayments timed to the contract term. The equipment finance calculator helps test a balloon against a straight term.
• Invoice finance on the mine’s invoices once billing starts, which smooths out the 45-day wait.
• A short-term second mortgage behind the directors’ Perth home to bridge the first six weeks, repaid from the first invoice funding.

They also model the payroll tax change. At $2.6m in wages, the deduction drops to about $754k, so the annual bill climbs from about $70k to about $102k, a rise of roughly $32k. Seeing that early means it goes into the cash flow plan, not into a nasty surprise in month three.

Should you try your bank first?

In most cases, yes. The major banks and regional lenders are often the cheapest money available to a WA business, particularly one with several years of steady accounts and good security. If your bank makes a fair offer, it deserves real consideration.

Banks do have firm boxes, though, and some WA businesses don’t fit them neatly: contractors relying on one client, operators coming off a commodity downturn, businesses with a recent tax debt, and anyone who needs funds faster than a credit committee meets. If that sounds familiar, our declined by the bank page sets out practical next moves and browse the lender directory for non-bank, private and specialist options.

Ready to talk about your WA business?

Whether you’re gearing up for a new contract, riding out a slower patch or buying the shed you’ve been renting for years, the right finance depends on your security, your trading record and how exposed your income is to the cycle, not on which side of the Nullarbor you’re on.

Sorting out that fit is our job. Our form is quick, roughly a minute from Kununurra to Albany, and sending it has no effect on your credit history because no credit check runs at that stage. Your enquiry stays with us rather than being circulated to funder after funder. A specialist reads it, considers your contracts, security and timing, then picks up the phone. Give us honest, specific numbers (the amount, what it’s for, any property, years trading) and the first suggestion we make is far more likely to be the right one.

Start your WA finance enquiry →