Finance the gear that grows your business.

What is equipment finance?

The right equipment at the right time is often what separates a good quarter from a great one — and rarely the moment you have the full cost sitting in the bank.

Equipment finance lets you acquire a business asset now and spread its cost over the years it earns for you, with the asset itself as the security. Instead of a lump sum leaving the business, you make manageable repayments while the gear does its job. That keeps working capital free for wages, stock and the next opportunity — and, structured well, the finance sits comfortably against the extra income the asset generates.

You'll hear the same thing called asset finance, and in the Australian market the two terms are used interchangeably. The defining feature of both is that the lender takes its security in the item being purchased rather than over your home or a general charge across the business. That single fact is why equipment finance is usually available to businesses that would struggle to raise the same amount unsecured, and why the asset's type, age and resale prospects matter as much to the lender as your financials do.

It's also worth being clear about what equipment finance isn't. It funds a defined asset with a defined price, not the general timing gaps in your trading cycle — if the problem is that money goes out before it comes in, a business overdraft or line of credit is the tool built for that. Businesses commonly run both: a revolving facility for cash flow, and asset finance for the capital purchases.

What we finance

• Trucks, trailers & transport — prime movers, rigids, tippers and fleet upgrades.
• Plant & machinery — excavators, loaders, cranes, agricultural and manufacturing equipment.
• Trade & workshop — tools, compressors, hoists and fit-out.
• Technology & medical — IT hardware, medical and dental equipment, POS and office fit-out.
• Used & private sale — not just dealer stock; we place used and private-sale assets too.

Lenders sort assets into rough tiers, and it pays to know where yours sits before you shop. Primary assets — trucks, earthmoving plant, agricultural machinery, commercial vehicles — are mainstream, easy to value and easy to resell, so they attract the widest lender appetite and the keenest pricing. Secondary assets such as forklifts, workshop plant and specialised trade equipment sit a step back. Tertiary assets — fit-out, IT hardware, soft assets with little resale value — are funded, but by a narrower field and on different terms, because if the deal goes wrong there is far less for the lender to recover. Nothing about that tiering is a barrier; it simply determines which lenders your deal should go to, which is the part we handle.

How the finance is structured

Four structures cover most deals. The right one depends on who you want to own the asset, how you account for it, and how long you intend to keep it.

The practical decision usually comes down to two questions. Do you want the asset on your balance sheet and the depreciation and GST treatment that come with ownership — or would you rather keep it off and treat the payment as a running cost? And will you still want this exact machine at the end of the term, or will you have moved on? Owners of long-life plant that holds value tend toward a chattel mortgage; businesses on a three-year technology or vehicle refresh cycle more often land on a lease or rental.

Unsure which suits your books? Your accountant and our broker can settle it between them — that's part of the service. Our full comparison of chattel mortgage vs finance lease vs rental walks through each structure and who it suits.

Tax treatment & the instant asset write-off

How you finance an asset changes how it's treated at tax time, and that difference is often worth more than a few points of interest rate. The broad shape is this: under a chattel mortgage or hire purchase you're treated as the owner, so you generally claim depreciation on the asset and the interest component of your repayments, with GST on the purchase price typically claimable up front where you're registered. Under a lease or rental you're paying to use someone else's asset, so the payments themselves are generally the deductible item, with GST handled inside each payment rather than at purchase.

The instant asset write-off sits on top of that. It's a concession about the tax treatment of an eligible asset rather than about how the asset was paid for. Its status right now needs stating carefully, because the honest answer has two halves. The $20,000 instant asset write-off applied to eligible assets first used or installed ready for use by 30 June 2026, for small businesses using the simplified depreciation rules. In the 2026-27 Budget on 12 May 2026 the Government announced it will make the $20,000 limit permanent from 1 July 2026 — but at the time of writing that measure is before Parliament and not yet law. An asset you buy today falls in the 2026-27 year, so it sits on the announced-but-unlegislated side of that line.

The mechanics that do apply are worth knowing before you commit to a purchase: the limit is per asset rather than per business, so multiple qualifying assets can each be written off; second-hand assets are not excluded; the cost is tested before any trade-in credit; and the whole cost of the asset must fall under the limit even where you only use it partly for business, so a vehicle used 40% for business but costing well over the threshold fails the test outright rather than qualifying on its business-use share. Passenger vehicles are separately capped by the car limit.

So treat this section as the map, not the answer — our full guide to the instant asset write-off and equipment finance walks through the mechanics, the car limit and the timing test in detail. Check the ATO's current guidance before relying on it. Confirm eligibility with your accountant or directly with the ATO before you make a purchase decision that depends on it — and tell your broker what the accountant says, because the structure we recommend should follow the tax position rather than the other way around. Our guide to financing second-hand and private-sale equipment covers the asset side of the same decision.

Instant asset write-off position last checked against ATO guidance on 27 July 2026; the permanence measure was still before Parliament at that date. General information only. DeMarque Finance is a finance brokerage, not a tax agent or financial adviser — nothing here is tax advice or a recommendation about your circumstances.

Rates & what drives your pricing

There's no single equipment finance rate in Australia, and there is no rate card we could honestly publish — the same business buying the same machine can be priced materially differently across lenders. What moves yours:

• Asset type & age — newer, mainstream assets price sharper than older or specialised ones, because they're easier to value and resell.
• Deposit or balloon — how the repayment is shaped across the term, and how much of the asset's value is left owing at the end.
• Trading history & turnover — established businesses get the widest choice and best pricing.
• Credit profile — the business's and directors' credit standing.
• Security — asset-backed deals price differently from those needing additional or property security.
• Lender fit — each lender has an asset appetite; the right match is the difference between a sharp rate and a decline.

One point worth understanding before you compare offers: equipment finance is usually quoted as a fixed rate over the term, so the repayment you're shown at settlement is the repayment you'll make throughout. That makes it easier to budget than a variable facility — but it also means the comparison you should be running is total cost across the whole term, including the balloon, rather than the monthly figure in isolation. A longer term or a bigger balloon will always produce a smaller monthly number and a larger total. Our breakdown of equipment finance rates and fees in Australia works through how each lever moves the final number.

Any figures on this page are indicative only and do not constitute a formal finance offer or approval.

The cost stack, decoded

The rate is the headline; it isn't the whole cost. Most equipment finance deals are priced across a handful of components, and lenders weight them differently — which is exactly where like-for-like comparisons quietly stop being like-for-like.

• Interest across the term — generally fixed, built into a level repayment, and the largest component by some distance.
• Establishment or documentation fee — a one-off charge when the facility is set up.
• Monthly account or administration fee — a small recurring charge some lenders apply across the term. Modest per month, worth multiplying by the number of months before you dismiss it.
• Asset inspection or valuation — more common on private sales and on older or specialised assets, where the lender needs an independent view of what it's funding.
• Brokerage or origination fee — where one applies, it is disclosed to you before you sign anything. You should never learn about a fee at settlement.
• Early payout costs — because most equipment finance is fixed-rate, paying it out early can carry a break cost. If there's a realistic chance you'll sell the asset mid-term, ask what that looks like before you commit, not after.

The practical consequence is the same as it is on any credit product: a sharp headline rate attached to a heavier fee structure can cost more than a slightly higher rate with a clean one. The comparison that matters is the all-in cost over the term you'll actually hold the asset for — which is what the calculator below is built to illustrate, and what a broker should be putting in front of you in writing.

Used, private-sale & older assets

A great deal of Australian business equipment changes hands second-hand, and financing it is entirely normal — but it is assessed differently from a new dealer purchase, and knowing why saves time. With a dealer, the lender has an invoice from a registered business, a known supply chain and a clear title trail. With a private sale, it has none of that by default, so it reconstructs them: verifying the seller, confirming the asset is free of existing finance, and often commissioning an inspection or valuation to confirm condition and value before funds move.

Asset age is the other lever. Most lenders think in terms of the asset's age at the end of the term rather than the start, because that's what governs the resale value backing the loan. A ten-year-old machine on a five-year term is a fifteen-year-old machine when the last payment lands, and lenders price and structure accordingly — sometimes with a shorter maximum term, a larger deposit, or a smaller balloon. None of that makes an older or private-sale asset unfinanceable. It makes lender selection matter more, because appetite for used and private-sale deals varies more widely across the panel than almost any other factor. Those are exactly the deals that get passed over elsewhere and placed here.

How the process runs, end to end

The sequence is short, and knowing it up front is most of what keeps a deal moving.

• 1. Identify the asset and the price — a quote, invoice or sale contract. You can start before this, but the numbers firm up once the asset is real.
• 2. Eligibility check — the free eligibility check takes about 90 seconds, runs no credit check to begin, and returns a personalised indicative range.
• 3. Structure and lender match — a broker confirms the structure against your accounting position and takes the deal to the lenders whose appetite fits the asset and your trading history.
• 4. Application and approval — supporting documents go in as a packaged file. Indicative outcomes typically land within 24–48 hours.
• 5. Documentation — the finance contract is issued, reviewed and signed, with the asset details and any inspection or verification completed.
• 6. Settlement — and this is the part people don't expect.

At settlement, the money does not land in your account. The lender pays the supplier — the dealer, the vendor or the private seller — directly against the invoice or sale contract, and the asset is released to you at the same time. That's deliberate: it's how the lender confirms its security actually exists and is what the paperwork said it was. For you it means the invoice needs to be correct and in the right business name before settlement, and that if you've already paid a deposit to the supplier, that needs to be visible in the documentation so it's credited properly. For a fuller walk-through, how equipment finance works in Australia covers the mechanics stage by stage.

Eligibility & what lenders look for

Most approvals come down to an active ABN with a reasonable trading history, an asset the lender is comfortable funding, and cash flow that services the repayment. Low-doc options exist for established businesses assessed on ABN and asset alone, and no-property-security structures are common because the asset is the security. We package the deal for the lender most likely to say yes, the first time.

Two things sit slightly outside that list and decide more deals than people expect. The first is GST registration and how long the ABN has been active — several low-doc programs are built around a minimum period of continuous registration, so a business that has been trading for years under a recently re-registered ABN can present worse than it deserves to. The second is existing commitments: lenders look at what other asset finance is already on foot, because each facility consumes servicing capacity even when the equipment is earning. Neither is a barrier so much as something to raise at the start rather than have surface halfway through an application. If you want the full picture of what's assessed before you commit to anything, start with the eligibility check.

General information only, prepared without regard to your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not personal advice or a recommendation to enter any particular finance product.