No house to offer as security? What your car, gear, savings, shares and super can (and can't) do for a business loan

You rent your home. You lease the shop, the unit or the office. When someone asks “what can you offer as security?”, the honest answer feels like “not much”.

But that’s rarely true. Most owners have a ute or van, some equipment, a bit of cash put aside, maybe a share portfolio from a past job, and a super balance that’s grown for years. The real question is which of those a lender will actually count, and which ones only look useful on paper.

Here’s an asset-by-asset look, and what tends to matter more than any of them.

The quick answer: which assets help, and how much?

Asset you own	Can it secure business funding?	How useful it usually is
Vehicle being bought	Yes, it secures its own finance	High, for that purchase
Vehicle already paid off	Sometimes, with a smaller pool of lenders	Modest, because cars depreciate
Equipment and machinery	Yes, especially new or near-new gear	High, for that purchase
Cash or term deposit	Yes, with some banks	Real, but it locks your cash away
Listed shares	Occasionally	Limited, with big buffers
Super or an SMSF	No	None
Your business’s turnover	Yes, it’s what unsecured lending is built on	Usually the biggest lever

The rest of this guide walks through each row, starting with the assets that work best.

Vehicles and equipment: strong security, but mostly for themselves

Machinery, vehicles and other gear are the easiest assets to put to work, because a financier can identify them, value them and register an interest over them. That’s what equipment finance does: the asset you’re buying secures the loan used to buy it.

That makes equipment finance the cleanest move for a renter who needs a new ute, oven, excavator or fit-out item. You’re not offering something you already own; the new item carries its own deal, and your unsecured capacity stays free for things that can’t secure themselves, like wages, stock or a BAS bill.

Gear you already own outright is a different story. Some financiers will lend against a paid-off vehicle or machine, but expect:

• A conservative value. Lenders allow for wear, age and what the item would fetch at auction, not what you paid.
• A PPSR check. Before anyone accepts a vehicle or machine as security, they’ll search the Personal Property Securities Register. The PPSR’s used car search shows whether a security interest is already registered and whether the vehicle has been recorded as stolen or written off. If an old finance company is still registered, that has to be cleared first.
• Smaller amounts. A five-year-old ute might support a fraction of what the same money in turnover would.

Coaching tip: if you’re planning a vehicle or machinery purchase anyway, finance it as equipment and keep your cash in the business. It’s almost always a better use of the asset than trying to borrow against an old one later.

Cash and term deposits: real security, at a real cost

Some banks will issue a facility or a bank guarantee backed by money held in a term deposit with them. Commercial landlords asking for a bank guarantee is the classic case: the bank holds your cash and issues the guarantee against it.

It works, but think it through:

• Your money is frozen. For as long as the facility or guarantee runs, the cash backing it isn’t available for emergencies.
• It can defeat the purpose. If you have the cash, the better question is often whether you need to borrow at all, or whether a smaller unsecured facility would let you keep your savings as a buffer.
• The lender still looks at the business. Cash security makes a bank comfortable with the downside, but most still want to see healthy trading.

For many renters, a cash buffer is worth more sitting in the business account than locked up as security. Lenders like seeing a balance that doesn’t hit zero before every bill, and that buffer shows up in your statements every month.

Shares: possible, but a narrow door

A small number of lenders will take listed shares as security, and they protect themselves with deep buffers. If the market falls, they may ask for more security or a partial repayment.

Don’t confuse this with a margin loan. Moneysmart describes a margin loan as a loan for investing, secured by the investments themselves, and it can lead to margin calls when values fall. That’s a tool for building a portfolio, not for funding stock or a hire.

Practically, shares are a backstop. If you’re thinking of selling some to fund the business, talk to your accountant about capital gains first, because the tax bill can change which option is cheaper overall.

Super and SMSFs: the asset you can’t touch

This is the question we hear most from owners who’ve built up a decent balance and don’t own a home. The short answer is no, for two reasons.

Your SMSF can’t lend to you or back your borrowing. The ATO’s guidance on SMSF loans and early access says a fund can’t lend money or give direct or indirect financial help to a member or a member’s relative. The ATO gives the example that fund assets can’t be used to guarantee a member’s personal loan. Breaches are treated seriously and can lead to penalties for trustees.

Early release isn’t a business-funding route. Moneysmart’s page on accessing super early lists narrow grounds such as severe financial hardship, certain medical or compassionate expenses, and being unable to work through illness or injury. Starting or funding a business isn’t on that list.

If anyone suggests a workaround to get super money into your business, treat it as a red flag and speak to your accountant or SMSF adviser before going further.

So what actually carries the weight without property?

For most renters, the strongest asset isn’t on a balance sheet at all. It’s the pattern of money moving through your business account.

An unsecured lender reads your bank statements the way a property lender reads a valuation. They’re looking for:

• Turnover that’s verifiable and lands in a dedicated business account.
• Consistency, or seasonal swings you can explain.
• Clean account conduct, with no recent dishonours and no running on fumes before payday.
• Room for another repayment after your existing loans and advances.
• Tax under control, with BAS lodged and any ATO debt on a plan that’s being met.

Our guide to how turnover sets your limit goes deeper. If you’d rather test it now, a 60-second enquiry gives you a real read on your file, and it won’t touch your credit score.

Be clear-eyed about one thing. “Unsecured” means no property is pledged, not that nothing is promised. Most lenders still want a director’s guarantee, and some take a general security agreement over business assets and register it on the PPSR. Our page on guarantees and GSAs explains what you’re signing.

Worked example: matching assets to the job (illustrative)

Take a hypothetical mobile mechanic on the Sunshine Coast. They rent their home, run the business from a leased unit and have three years of trading behind them. The owner wants to buy a second service van and hire an apprentice.

What they own:

• A paid-off five-year-old van
• Hoists and diagnostic gear, mostly paid off
• Around three months of expenses in a savings account
• A modest share portfolio
• A healthy industry super balance

How it plays out:

1. The new van goes on equipment finance. It secures itself, and the owner doesn’t touch the savings.
2. The apprentice’s first months of wages and tools come from an unsecured line of credit, sized on the business’s steady deposits.
3. The savings stay where they are, as a buffer that also keeps the account looking healthy.
4. The shares are left alone, as a long-term backstop.
5. Super never comes into it.

The old van and hoists never needed to be pledged, because the plan matched each cost to the right tool. All figures and details are illustrative.

When does property-backed lending make sense?

If you do own property, or a relative does, a secured loan opens larger amounts: $20,000 to $5,000,000 against real estate. That’s an option, not an expectation. Plenty of owners keep the family home out of the business on purpose, and our guide to keeping the family home out of it covers how. Unsecured facilities, typically $5,000 to $500,000, cover most day-to-day needs for trading businesses without any property at all.

You don’t need a house to get a real answer

If you’ve been told “come back when you own property”, you’re not alone, and it’s rarely the end of the road. What most lenders want to see is a business that earns its repayments, and you can show that with nothing more than your statements.

That’s where we start. Telling us about your business takes about a minute, and there’s no credit check just for asking; one only happens if you decide to proceed with an option. Your details won’t be shopped around a crowd of lenders either, so you won’t get a barrage of calls. A specialist reads your enquiry, looks at the assets and turnover you actually have, and phones you to talk through what fits. Please answer the form accurately, including your real monthly deposits and any loans you’re already repaying, so the first option we suggest is the right one.

Find out what your turnover can support →