Eternity Group

Borrowers · Entity lending

Loans for Family Trusts & Companies

Lending where the borrower is a discretionary trust, unit trust or Pty Ltd company — not the individual. Credit Representative 565110 under ACL 561324 held by Loans Only Pty Ltd. How lenders read entity borrowers, the guarantor and trust-deed checks that apply, and why the practitioner who prepares the entity returns is well placed to arrange the loan.

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Mr Rohan Manokaran (Credit Representative 565110) is authorised under Australian Credit Licence 561324 held by Loans Only Pty Ltd. Information on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Credit eligibility, lender criteria, fees and charges apply.

When the entity is the borrower

The loan sits with the trust or the company, not with you.

Once you have chosen to hold an asset inside a family trust or a company, the lending follows that decision. The legal borrower is the entity; the people behind it stand as guarantors. That single change reshapes which lenders will fund the deal and what they need to see.

A borrower buying an investment property in their own name presents a familiar shape to almost every lender on the panel: personal income, personal liabilities, a single applicant or couple. When the borrower is instead a discretionary trust with a corporate trustee, or a Pty Ltd company, the lender is assessing a legal entity. It must read the trust deed or the company constitution, confirm who has authority to borrow and to mortgage the property, and build a guarantee structure that captures the individuals who really stand behind the loan.

The income test does not disappear, but it moves. For a trust the lender looks at the distributions flowing to the beneficiaries who are guaranteeing the loan, and at the trust’s own trading or rental income where relevant. For a company it looks at the company’s profit, the salary and dividends drawn by the directors, and the retained earnings the lender is willing to recognise. The same financial position can serve different beneficiaries or directors differently depending on how distributions and drawings have been documented over the prior two years.

Because the structure decision was usually made for tax, asset-protection or succession reasons long before the property purchase, entity lending works best when the practitioner who advised on, or who maintains, that structure is also the one arranging the finance. The deed is already understood, the distributions are already on file, and the lender shortlist can be drawn against the real structure rather than a description of it.

Entity borrower profiles

Five entity borrowing shapes.

Family (discretionary) trust

A discretionary trust, usually with a corporate trustee, holding an investment property. The lender reviews the deed for borrowing and mortgaging power, and guarantees are taken from the trustee directors and the benefiting beneficiaries. The shortlist of accepting lenders is narrower than for personal borrowing.

Unit trust

Two or more parties hold defined units in the trust, often where unrelated investors pool into a single property. Lenders look at the unit holdings, the unit-holder agreement and each unit holder as a guarantor. Documentation expands with the number of parties involved.

Pty Ltd company

A company borrowing in its own right — commonly to hold a commercial or investment property on its balance sheet. The lender reads company financials, director drawings and retained profit, and takes director and major-shareholder guarantees. Company constitution and ASIC extract are reviewed.

Trustee-company structure

A company acts as trustee for a trust, so the borrowing entity is the corporate trustee in its capacity as trustee. Both the company layer and the trust layer are reviewed: the constitution, the deed, the directors and the beneficiaries. Lender policy on this combination varies considerably.

SMSF — separate pathway

Where the property is to be held inside a self-managed super fund, fund borrowing follows a limited-recourse framework that sits outside the trust and company rules on this page. Those arrangements are covered through the dedicated SMSF pathway rather than here.

How the broker side works

From scoping to settlement.

01 · Scoping the entity

Structure · purpose · timing

We confirm the exact borrowing entity, who its directors and beneficiaries are, what the property is for, the deposit source and the timing. This determines whether the next step is a written pre-assessment, a pre-approval or a formal application.

02 · Deed & documents

Deed · constitution · returns

The executed trust deed and any variations, or the company constitution and ASIC extract, plus two years of entity returns and financials, BAS, and the personal returns and identification of every director, trustee and guaranteeing beneficiary. Secure upload.

03 · Pre-assessment

Entity-aware lender modelling

Borrowing position modelled against the lenders that actually accept your trust or company structure, with the distribution or drawing history factored in. Written shortlist with policy rationale, before any credit-file enquiry.

04 · Application

Single lender · guarantees set

Application built around the chosen lender’s entity policy, with the guarantee structure confirmed and each guarantor referred for independent legal advice. We respond to lender queries directly and report progress on a defined cadence.

05 · Approval & settlement

Conditional · full · settlement

Conditional approval first, then full approval covering valuation, deed and constitution sign-off by the lender’s solicitors, guarantee execution and settlement on the contract date. Approval depends on the lender’s assessment.

06 · Year-end consistency

Entity returns, if engaged

Where the entity’s returns are also prepared by the practice, the distributions, drawings and financials presented to the lender match what is lodged with the ATO. Next year’s application is built on figures that are already consistent.

Mr Rohan Manokaran (Credit Representative 565110) is authorised under Australian Credit Licence 561324 held by Loans Only Pty Ltd. Information on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Credit eligibility, lender criteria, fees and charges apply.

How we are paid

How we are paid: Eternity Mortgage Solutions typically receives commissions from the lender for loans arranged on your behalf. A full explanation of how we are paid, our lender panel and any potential conflicts of interest is provided in our Credit Guide and Credit Proposal Disclosure document, available on request before any loan application is submitted.

Frequently asked questions

Trust & company loans — common questions.

Self-employed lending is about how a lender reads your personal income when that income comes from a business you run. Entity lending is a step beyond that: here the borrower on the loan is the trust or the company itself, with the directors or beneficiaries standing behind it as guarantors. The income analysis still matters, but the lender is now also assessing the entity as the legal borrower, reviewing the trust deed or company constitution, confirming who can bind the entity, and checking that the guarantee structure is enforceable. Many self-employed people borrow in their personal names; entity borrowing is the narrower case where the asset is deliberately held by the trust or company.

Related

Where this fits in the bigger picture

Entity lending follows the structure decision. These pages cover the structure advice that sits before it, the entity tax-return work that drives serviceability, and the investment lending and self-employed broker pages it connects to.