Auction finance for an unconditional contract and a locked settlement date

The hammer falls and the property is yours. So is the obligation. In Australia an auction purchase is almost always unconditional on the fall of the hammer, with the deposit paid on the day and settlement commonly set at 30 to 42 days. There is no cooling-off period and no finance clause to fall back on. If the money is not ready by the contract date, you risk the deposit, the property, and a claim for the shortfall if the vendor resells for less.

That timeline is the problem. A standard purchase loan often runs four to eight weeks from application to settlement. Your contract may give you less, and the clock started the moment you signed. Windsor Finance arranges auction finance through a panel of bank and non-bank lenders. We hold no capital of our own, so there is no reason to push one lender’s product. We take your deal to the lenders most likely to settle inside your contract date, and we come back with indicative structures, usually within 24 hours.

Two products on our panel are made for this kind of speed. Auction and fast-track bridging finance. Short-term, property-secured funding to settle now and exit later through a sale or a refinance to a term loan. Typical loan size runs $150,000 to $5m. Indicative cost is roughly 7% to 13% per annum, priced for the speed rather than a 30-year hold. LVR is typically up to around 75% of the purchase price or valuation, whichever is lower. Indicative offer in about 24 hours, with settlement engineered to land inside the contract date. See bridging loans for the full picture. Private and caveat lending. The fastest option on the panel, drawn from private credit funds and private lenders. Security can be a first mortgage, a second mortgage behind your existing lender, or a caveat over your interest. Indicative cost is higher, commonly 9% to 18% per annum or priced monthly, plus an establishment fee. Where the security and the exit are clean, settlement can run in 3 to 10 business days. This is overwhelmingly business-purpose and investment lending. See private and non-bank lending.

The speed comes from packaging the file properly and placing it with the right lender first time, not from cutting corners on the security or the exit. The strongest position at auction is knowing what you can settle before you bid, because an unconditional contract gives you no protection if funding falls short, so the work is best done in advance. The valuer, the lender’s credit team, and the conveyancer all sit on the critical path, and Windsor pushes each one to hold the timetable. We recommend solicitors and conveyancers who have settled auction purchases before, so the legals run alongside the credit assessment rather than after it. Most of the lending described here is for business or investment purposes, which sits outside the National Consumer Credit Protection Act. Auction finance for a home you intend to live in can be consumer credit, which is treated differently. We confirm the purpose with you before anything proceeds. Windsor Finance is a finance broker. The purpose of each deal is confirmed in writing before it proceeds. Every cost is disclosed in writing, up front, before you commit.