Short term business loans — without the short term
A short term business loan is business finance taken for a defined, usually brief period and repaid from a known event rather than from trading profit. HomeSec funds exactly this kind of borrowing, from $20,000 to $5,000,000 against property security, in as little as 24 hours. What we do differently is that we do not fix the term. There is no minimum, no maximum, no penalty for repaying early and no fee for extending.
See if you qualify in sixty seconds. No credit check to apply, no financials, no payments for the first six months. That's the HomeSec Advantage.
See if you qualifyWhat people mean by a short-term business loan
Almost nobody wants a loan for a short time. They want a loan for however long the problem lasts, and every lender they have spoken to has offered them a fixed block of months instead. "Short term" is the phrase the market uses for borrowing that is not a twenty-year bank facility, and it is usually the wrong shape for the problem it is meant to solve.
What sits behind it is usually one of four things: a bill with a date on it, a payment that is late arriving, an opportunity that closes this week, or a lender who has said no. Those are the situations we fund, and none of them come with a term attached.
Why we are not a short term lender
A fixed term is a lender's convenience dressed up as a product feature. It lets the lender price a defined risk window and plan its book. It does very little for the borrower, and when the term is wrong it does real harm.
Fix a loan at three months and one of two things happens. Either the borrower is finished in six weeks and has paid for three months anyway — because most fixed-term lenders charge a minimum period whether you use it or not. Or the exit slips by a fortnight, and a loan that was performing becomes a default, with extension fees, penalty rates or enforcement attached to it. Neither outcome has anything to do with whether the borrower was good for the money.
HomeSec funds its own loans, with its own money, and has since 2004. That is why we can leave the term open: there is no fund mandate behind us requiring capital back on a date, and no credit committee that needs the maturity profile to look tidy. If your settlement moves, we move with it. It costs you nothing and it takes a phone call.
Fixed term against open term
| HomeSec — open term | Typical fixed-term private lender | |
|---|---|---|
| Term | You choose, and can change it | Set at settlement, 1 – 12 months |
| Minimum period charged | None | Commonly 3 months, sometimes 6 |
| Repay early | No penalty, interest refunded | Often no refund of prepaid interest |
| Need longer | No fee, handled on the phone | Extension fee, re-documentation, sometimes a new establishment fee |
| If the exit slips | Tell us and we extend | Default rate, penalty interest, or enforcement |
| Who decides | Us — we fund our own loans | Often a fund with a mandate |
A comparison of lender process and terms, not of price. Rates are risk-priced per file and we do not publish a headline number — here is why, and here is what it actually costs.
What a minimum term costs — in months, at any rate
Most short-term lenders write one to twelve months with a three-month minimum interest period. We publish no rate, so here is the arithmetic in months charged, which holds whatever the rate is.
| The loan actually ran for | Fixed term, 3-month minimum | HomeSec, open term |
|---|---|---|
| Repaid in 6 weeks | 3 months | 6 weeks |
| Repaid in 10 weeks | 3 months | 10 weeks |
| Repaid in 4 months | 4 months | 4 months |
| Extended to 9 months | Re-documented, often re-priced, extension fee | 9 months — one phone call |
| Extended to 14 months | A new loan, or a default | 14 months — the same loan |
Fixed-term characteristics are general category observations of short-term business lending, September 2026. Individual lenders vary.
Interest-only business loans, and the other option
Two ways to structure repayments, and you choose. Interest-only: interest paid monthly, principal repaid at the exit. Capitalised: no payments at all for up to 6 months, the interest added to the balance, everything cleared from the exit. No daily or weekly direct debits. Neither structure has a fixed term, and either can be changed by a phone call if the plan moves.
From the call to the money
Tell us the deal
Amount, purpose, timing, the property and how the loan gets repaid. A Lending Manager gives you an indicative answer on that call — usually in minutes.
Minutes
Conditional approval
Photo ID, a rates notice and your most recent mortgage statement. That is the whole list, and it takes about fifteen minutes.
About 15 minutes
Funds released
As little as 24 hours from a clean, complete scenario. Paid where you tell us — to your account, or straight to the ATO.
As little as 24 hours
What it costs
Priced per file, on the property, the position, the amount and the exit. No rate is published, because a rate with "from" in front of it is the best file's number. How it is priced, and every fee that exists.
What happens at the end of the term
Nothing automatic, and nothing punitive. Interest is prepaid for the period you chose, so there is nothing to service along the way. When that period is coming to an end you either repay, or you tell us you need longer and we extend it. There is no fee to extend, and most extensions are done in a single phone call.
The one thing that matters is the exit. We will ask about it at application and we will keep asking, because a loan with no exit becomes an enforcement problem, and enforcement against your property is the outcome nobody wants. An exit that is dated and documented — a signed contract of sale, a formal letter of offer from an incoming lender, a certified progress claim — is what makes an open term safe rather than reckless.
Which product this actually is
"Short term business loan" describes when you need the money, not how the money is secured. The security decides the product, and there are three:
- Caveat loan — fastest to settle, no first mortgagee consent required, typically the answer when the deadline is days away.
- Registered second mortgage — larger amounts, better priced, sits behind your existing first mortgage.
- Bridging finance — where the exit is a specific transaction with a date on it.
You do not need to work out which one you want. Tell us the amount, the purpose and what property is available, and we will tell you which instrument fits and what it costs — generally within the hour.
Questions we get on the phone
Is there a minimum term?
How long can I keep the loan?
Do you charge to extend?
Is this the same as a short term loan from an unsecured lender?
Is a short term business loan interest-only?
How short can the loan be?
What about short term commercial loans?
Can I extend a short term loan?
What is the catch with a fixed short-term loan?
Tell us the amount, the purpose and what property is available, and we will tell you which instrument fits and what it costs. 1300 93 83 87, Mon–Fri, 8:30am – 5:30pm Melbourne time.
These describe the same money from different angles. If the one you are on is not the shape you need, one of these will be.
See if you qualify in sixty seconds
Three short questions, no credit check to apply and no financial statements. A Lending Manager reads it and calls you back with a real answer — not a call centre, not an algorithm.
That's the HomeSec Advantage.
Reviewed by Paul Stone, Joint Chief Executive