Machinery finance: funding the heavy end of your business

Machinery finance is business finance with more steel in it: excavators, forklifts, farm machinery, trucks and the rest of the equipment that does physical work. The structures mirror equipment finance generally, but the asset rules and lender appetites are their own world. Here is what changes at the heavy end.

The machine matters as much as the business

Lenders price machinery deals on both halves:

• Asset type and market. Mainstream machines with deep resale markets, standard excavators, common forklifts, popular tractors, finance easily. Specialised or heavily modified gear narrows the field because resale is the lender's fallback.
• Age and hours. Machinery lives on hours as much as years. Used gear is very financeable, but most lenders cap age at term end, and auction or private purchases bring extra valuation checks.
• New versus used. New machines get the sharpest pricing and longest terms; good used gear at the right price often wins on total cost anyway. Run both.

The business half of the assessment

The ABN's trading history, the financials or bank statements (low-doc paths are common in machinery), the director's credit profile, and crucially the story: a machine that directly generates revenue, a dig contract, a harvest, a fit-out, is an easier deal than a speculative purchase. Lenders fund earning machines.

Structures at the heavy end

The chattel mortgage dominates here too, with balloons commonly used to match a machine's earning curve. Terms run longer than car finance for long-life assets. Seasonal repayment structures matter most in agriculture, where the machine's income arrives in lumps: say so upfront and structure for it, rather than white-knuckling flat repayments through the off season.

Auctions, imports and private sales

All financeable, with caveats: auctions need pre-arranged finance because settlement windows are short, imports need compliance evidence, and private sales bring ownership and encumbrance checks. None of these are blockers; all of them are reasons to have finance sorted before you bid or commit.

Getting machinery priced properly

Machinery lender appetites shift with the equipment market. One enquiry through Loanseekers compares your machine and business across the commercial panel, no credit score impact, and tells you which lender wants your kind of deal this month, before you are standing at an auction with a number in your head.