What Documents Do You Need to Buy an Accommodation Business?
Accommodation Finance
Lender file · Third party consents · What changed on 1 July 2026
Motel, pub, caravan park or management rights, this is the Australian lender document checklist from first inspection to settlement: what you need, who produces it, what a lender tests, which consents can stop the clock, and what happens after approval.
Quick Answer
Most of the lender's file is not yours to hand over. It comes from the vendor, the landlord, the body corporate and a regulator, so the order you request things in decides your settlement date more reliably than any single document does.
Also called: lender document pack, finance information pack, due diligence pack, lender checklist.
What documents does a lender ask for when you buy an accommodation business?
Think of the file as five evidence strands, expressed through at least six core items. The strands are the contract, trading evidence, security and structure evidence, identity and source-of-funds evidence, and third-party consents. The six core items are set out below. What changes between a motel, pub, caravan park, leasehold and management rights purchase is the extra evidence each structure adds and which third party has to provide it.
Four of the five are produced by somebody who is not you. That is the fact that decides your settlement date, and it is why this page is ordered by lead time rather than by subject.
Before any of it matters, settle whether you are buying a freehold going concern or a leasehold interest. A leasehold file carries a lease, a landlord's deed of consent and a term that caps the lending. A freehold file carries none of those and carries a valuation over real property instead. Our note on freehold versus leasehold going concern is the place to start, because the answer changes what you ask the agent for tomorrow.
Are you buying the business assets or the company that owns them?
Confirm that before the lender file is built. In an asset sale, the contract identifies the business assets, goodwill, equipment, stock, leases and contracts that are moving into your buying entity, so many of those items have to be assigned, transferred or released individually. In a share sale, you acquire the company itself, so the company keeps its existing assets, contracts and historical liabilities and the due diligence expands from the trading business to the entity you are acquiring.
That distinction changes the contract, tax treatment, warranties, liability review, KYC structure and sometimes the security a lender can take. This guide is written primarily around the accommodation-business and asset acquisition path. If the vendor proposes a share or equity sale, have your solicitor and accountant confirm the transaction structure before you rely on the document list below. A share sale transfers the entity with its history and liabilities attached; an asset sale transfers named assets and leaves the entity behind. General information, not legal or tax advice.
| Document | Applies to |
|---|---|
| Signed contract of sale and special conditions | Every file |
| Going concern clause agreed in writing | Every file where the sale is treated as GST-free |
| Financial statements and tax returns | Every file |
| BAS lodgements for the same periods | Every file |
| Identity, structure and source of funds evidence | Every file, and earlier than it used to be |
| Business plan and your operating experience | Every file, and only you can produce it |
Those six are the floor. Everything below is what changes by asset, and it is where the published material on this topic thins out to nothing.
| Document or test | Freehold motel or park | Freehold pub | Leasehold | Management rights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occupancy, tariff and booking records | ✓ Central | Secondary to takings | ✓ Central | Letting pool records instead |
| Lease, variations and rent review history | Not applicable | Not applicable | ✓ The core of the file | Manager's unit lease or title |
| Landlord's deed of consent and right of entry | Not applicable | Not applicable | ✓ Condition precedent | Body corporate approval instead |
| Caretaking and letting agreements, scheme records | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | ✓ The core of the file |
| Site agreements for long term residents | Parks with permanents only | Not applicable | Parks with permanents only | Not applicable |
| Liquor licence transfer application | Where the premises is licensed | ✓ Gates settlement | Where the premises is licensed | Real estate licence for the letting business |
| Manager's residence apportionment | ✓ Expected | Where a residence is attached | ✓ Expected | Unit valued separately |
| What the lender lends against | Going concern valuation over property and business | Going concern valuation, read differently where licensed | Going concern valuation, capped by remaining lease term | Value of the agreements, capped by remaining term |
Read that last row twice. What a lender will advance is a function of the structure you are buying, not of the asset class in general, and the widely repeated single deposit range you will find elsewhere collapses the most consequential distinction in the whole vertical. The gearing section puts numbers on it.
Where are you up to, and what should you read next?
Your next document depends on the stage of the deal, not on the asset name. A buyer still browsing needs to test tenure and fundability; a buyer who has signed needs to protect dates; a buyer with formal approval needs to clear conditions and consents; and a buyer who has settled needs to turn the acquisition file into a reporting system.
| Where you are | The thing that decides your outcome | Read this next |
|---|---|---|
| Browsing listings, no asset chosen | Freehold, leasehold or agreement-based tenure, because it changes the deposit, loan term and document pack | What a lender will advance |
| Shortlisted a property and have the information memorandum | Whether the advertised profit can be tied back to records a lender and accountant will accept | Does the listing profit survive |
| Offer accepted, contract not signed | Getting the finance, due diligence, valuation and approval risks dealt with in the contract before the clock starts | Can you sign before finance is approved |
| Under contract, due diligence running | Sending every third-party request out early and reconciling the vendor's trading evidence before the finance date | The assembly order |
| Finance date approaching, approval not final | The exact finance clause, its notice deadline and whether the approval you have is final and sufficient | What to do before the finance date expires |
| Formal approval issued, settlement still ahead | Conditions precedent, signed loan documents, landlord or body corporate consents, licence transfer and settlement funds | What happens after formal approval |
| Settlement date already at risk | The contract's remedies and notice process, which keep running even while documents are outstanding | What happens if a document is late |
| Settled, first 90 days | Setting up reporting, covenant dates, trust or licence compliance and clean monthly evidence from day one | What to set up after settlement |
If the agent wants a signature this week
- Send the contract to your solicitor before you sign. Finance, due diligence, valuation, lease assignment, body corporate and regulatory approvals are contract questions, not broker wording.
- Send the same contract and information memorandum to your broker. The useful first answer is whether the structure is fundable and what evidence the lender will need, not a generic borrowing percentage.
- Ask for the vendor records in one list covering identical periods. Financial statements, returns, BAS, bank evidence and booking or letting records are useful only when they can be reconciled.
- Identify the slowest external approval before agreeing dates. On a leasehold it may be landlord consent; on management rights it may be body corporate approval; on a licensed venue it may be the licence process.
- Diary the finance and due diligence dates separately from settlement. Do not assume an application still being assessed automatically extends a contractual deadline.
If you are still deciding which accommodation structure you are actually buying, the accommodation finance hub branches into motel, pub, caravan park and management rights finance before you commit to a contract.
Who produces each document, and which ones are not yours to hand over?
You personally produce three things: your identity and structure file, your source of funds evidence, and your business plan. Everything else comes from the vendor, the vendor's accountant, the landlord, the landlord's own financier, the body corporate, a state regulator, your solicitor, the vendor's financier or a valuer the lender instructs.
That is the single most useful reframe on this topic. Buyers plan the pack as a list of things to collect when it is really a list of third parties to start queuing. The items you control are a short minority and they are almost never the ones that hold up a settlement.
| Document | Who produces it | When it is needed |
|---|---|---|
| Contract of sale and special conditions | Vendor's solicitor, negotiated with yours | Before signing, because the going concern clause has to be in it |
| Financial statements, tax returns and BAS | Vendor, through the vendor's accountant | At the start of due diligence, before a lender is approached |
| Occupancy, tariff and booking records | Vendor, out of the property management or booking system | With the financials, so the two can be reconciled |
| Forward bookings and guest deposits held | Vendor, from the booking system and the bank account | Before settlement figures are agreed |
| Lease, variations and the landlord's consent | Landlord, and often the landlord's own financier | Day one of due diligence; the deed of consent needs the lender chosen |
| Caretaking and letting agreements, scheme records | Body corporate or community titles scheme, through its manager | Early, because approval runs on the scheme's meeting cycle |
| Licence transfer approval | The state or territory liquor authority | Before settlement, on the regulator's timetable |
| ASIC and PPSR searches | Your solicitor, from the registers | During due diligence, refreshed close to settlement |
| Discharge of the vendor's existing security | Vendor's financier | Booked in early; it settles simultaneously with you |
| Employee records and entitlement position | Vendor, as the current employer | Before the transfer of business terms are agreed |
| Valuation | A valuer instructed by the lender, not by you | After the lender is chosen and the file is substantially complete |
| Identity, structure and source of funds | You, and the entity buying | At engagement, now earlier than it used to be |
| Business plan and operating experience | You, and nobody else can | With the finance application |
The useful hand-off is to turn this table into one request list for the vendor and one action list for your advisers. For the finance branch of that list, start at the accommodation finance hub.
How do you get trading records out of a vendor who will only give you a one page summary?
You ask for named documents, in writing, for identical periods, and you buy the time to receive them by negotiating the due diligence condition before you sign. Almost every guide on this subject assumes the records are available for the asking. In practice the agent hands you a summary, the underlying records sit with the vendor's accountant, and nothing moves until the vendor is contractually obliged to move it.
Is an information memorandum enough for a lender?
No. An information memorandum is a selling document prepared for the vendor. It typically presents an adjusted profit figure, a tariff summary and photographs, and it is not source evidence of anything. A lender does not assess a memorandum. It assesses statements, returns, lodgements and system reports, and it reads the memorandum only as the claim it has to test.
What do you have to sign before financials are released?
Commonly a confidentiality agreement or deed with the agent or the vendor, and on larger assets an expression of interest as well. That is normal and it is not a commitment to buy. What matters is that signing it early costs you nothing and starts the clock on the longest lead item in the entire file, which is somebody else's accountant finding 4 years of records.
What does a request that actually gets answered look like?
One email, one list, identical periods across every item, and a named person to send it to. Splitting the request across 3 weeks is how buyers end up reconciling a profit and loss for one financial year against a BAS for another and then chasing both again. Ask for the statements, the returns, the BAS lodgements and the booking or occupancy export together, covering exactly the same periods.
What if the vendor genuinely has no records?
Then the deal is a different deal, and it should be priced and structured as one. Owner operators who have run a small park or motel on cash and a spiral notebook are common, and a lender cannot build a serviceability position out of goodwill. Where the trade cannot be evidenced, the realistic paths are a lower price against a property-led valuation, a larger deposit, a vendor carry, or walking away. Our guide to buying an underperforming accommodation business works through the version of this where the records exist and the trade is weak.
Does the net profit in the listing survive a lender's read?
Usually not in full. The figure advertised on a business for sale listing is an adjusted net profit, restated by the vendor or the agent by adding back costs they argue will not recur under your ownership. A lender starts from the reported result in the statements and returns, then allows only the add-backs you can trace to a line and explain. The gap between the two numbers is the gap between the deposit you planned and the deposit you need.
Which add-backs survive underwriting?
The ones that are documented and genuinely non-recurring. An owner's private motor vehicle, private telephone, personal travel booked through the business, a one-off legal cost or a genuine one-time repair are the usual survivors, each traced to a line in the financial statements. What does not survive is an add-back for work you will have to pay somebody to do. If the vendor and their family covered reception, cleaning and maintenance unpaid, and you will employ staff for that, the labour cost comes back in rather than out.
What is a manager's residence apportionment?
It is the split of the property and its running costs between the trading business and the owner's home. Most motels and many parks include a residence, and the electricity, rates, insurance and interest attaching to it are personal rather than business. Expect the apportionment to be shown, because a lender that cannot see it will assume the least favourable version. Our note on motel trading records and how a lender reads them sets out the same point from the assessment side.
Why does a lender rebuild the wages line?
Because the wages line under your ownership is the one that services the debt, not the wages line under the vendor's. This is the most common reason a well-presented listing profit does not fund. Build your own staffing model against the actual roster the asset needs, then compare it to what the statements show. Where the difference is large, that is the real negotiating point on price.
How is an accommodation business actually valued?
Adjusted net profit, divided by a capitalisation rate or multiplied by a market multiple, plus the value of the chattels you are buying. That single calculation sits between the profit in the listing and the deposit you have to find, and it is the part most buyers never see done.
Work it through in order. Start with the reported net profit in the statements. Add back only what survives underwriting to get the adjusted net profit. Apply the multiple or capitalisation rate the market uses for that tenure and location. Add the plant, equipment and chattels included in the sale. That is the going concern figure a valuer is working toward, and the lender gears against it rather than against the price you agreed.
Why it matters so much on this asset class: the multiple magnifies every dollar of profit. On a leasehold trading at a multiple of 3, an add-back of $20,000 that does not survive underwriting takes $60,000 off the value. On a freehold at a multiple of 8, the same $20,000 takes $160,000 off. That is the real reason the add-back schedule is fought over.
| Structure | What is being valued | How the market commonly quotes it | What moves the number most |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leasehold accommodation | Goodwill, chattels and the right to trade for the balance of the lease | A low multiple of adjusted net profit, quoted as a high return on investment | Remaining lease term and the rent |
| Freehold going concern | Land, buildings and the trading business as one | A materially higher multiple of adjusted net profit, quoted as a lower yield | Location, condition and trade strength |
| Freehold passive investment | The rent stream from a tenant operator, not the trade | A capitalisation rate applied to net rent | Lease covenant, term and rent review structure |
| Management rights | The caretaking and letting agreements, plus the manager's unit separately | A multiple of verified net profit, unit valued as real estate | Remaining agreement term and letting pool size |
Market convention only, drawn from published industry commentary, and stated without figures because the bands move with the market and differ by region. Not a valuation, not advice, and never a substitute for the lender's own valuer.
How do you tell whether the rent on a leasehold is too high?
Compare the rent to the adjusted net profit of the whole complex before the rent is taken out. Industry commentary has for decades used a rent sitting at roughly 40 to 45 per cent of the complex net profit as the workable rule of thumb, with a new lease commonly struck in that band. A rent well above it leaves too little for the operator and shortens the list of lenders willing to look at the deal, whatever the trade looks like.
Run that ratio before you run anything else on a leasehold. It is the fastest single test of whether the deal is fundable, it costs nothing, and it tells you immediately whether the negotiation should be about price or about rent.
What does a going concern valuer actually look at?
The trade, the tenure and the physical asset, weighted in that order. Expect the valuer to test the adjusted net profit against the same source documents the lender is reading, to read the lease or the agreements for term and rent, to inspect condition and outstanding capital works, and to compare against sales of similar assets. A valuation is not a second opinion on the price, it is an independent view of the earnings and the security.
Our explainer on going concern valuation covers the mechanics, and the freehold and business split on a motel purchase shows how the two legs are sized once the number lands.
How many years of trading figures does a lender want?
Typically 3 financial years plus the year to date, with the same periods reconciling across statements, returns and BAS lodgements. Some files run on 2 years where the trade is stable and the reconciliation is clean, and some lenders want 5. There is no national rule that sets it, and it varies by lender and by asset.
Do not confuse the lender convention with a universal duty rule. Queensland Revenue Office asks for a detailed goodwill valuation by a practising accountant supported by the previous 3 years of financial statements only where the business transfer is between associated or related parties. That is a separate state-duty requirement, not the reason an arm's-length lender asks for trading history. Source: Queensland Revenue Office, Lodging your business asset transfer documents, verified 14 August 2026.
The number of years is not really the test though. The test is whether the period you supply covers a full seasonal cycle for that asset and location, and whether it shows a trend rather than a snapshot. A regional park with a hard summer peak and a quiet winter needs a period that contains both. A metropolitan venue with flat weekly trade does not carry the same seasonality risk. A shorter run that reconciles cleanly is worth more than a longer run that does not.
Two situations change the answer. Where the business has changed hands or changed model inside the period, expect the pre-change figures to carry little weight. Where a refurbishment or a tariff reset has lifted trade recently, the recent months matter more than the older years, and monthly rather than annual figures are what make that case.
If the periods do not reconcile, the problem is usually not solved by supplying another year. The financial statements and BAS lodgements glossary entries show the two records a lender will keep trying to tie back to the underlying trade.
What trading evidence will a lender accept as proof of the income?
Statements, tax returns, BAS lodgements, the booking or occupancy export and the bank statements, all for identical periods, all agreeing with each other. Verified income and asserted income are treated as different categories rather than different grades of the same thing, which is why two deals with identical reported profit can land in completely different places.
The practical test is reconciliation. The financial statements agree with the returns, the returns agree with the BAS lodgements for the same periods, and the takings in all three agree with the booking system and the bank. Where those four sources line up, a lender can build a debt service cover position it will defend. Where they do not, the gap becomes the deal.
What if the BAS, tax returns, bank deposits and booking records do not match?
Do not pick the highest number and call it income. First make the periods comparable, then ask the vendor's accountant for a written reconciliation that explains the difference between the financial statements, tax returns, BAS, bank takings and booking or letting-system records. The useful extra documents are the underlying ledger or sales reports and the bank or merchant evidence that proves the explanation.
A clean timing or classification difference can often be explained. An unexplained recurring gap is different: the lender can treat that part of the income as unverified, and a valuer can decline to build unsupported trade into maintainable earnings. The practical rule is simple: if a number matters to the price or the debt service position, make the file show where it came from. Business.gov.au's current buying an existing business guidance likewise tells buyers to independently collect and check the financial information rather than rely on the seller's summary.
What does a lender read in a booking system export?
Occupancy by month, average tariff, length of stay, and the split between direct bookings, online travel agents and contract or corporate business. That last split matters more than buyers expect, because a park or motel carrying a single large contract has concentration risk in the same way a debtor book does, and the loss of one account can move the whole serviceability position.
Will open banking mean you stop supplying bank statements?
Not for this purchase. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission records that product data sharing obligations commenced for relevant non-bank lenders on 13 July 2026, and that consumer data sharing in the non-bank lenders sector will begin from 9 November 2026, phased by provider size. Nothing about how you supply statements today has changed, so supply them. Source: ACCC, The Consumer Data Right, verified 14 August 2026.
How much will a lender advance against an accommodation business?
It depends on the structure far more than on the asset. Leasehold gears lowest and is capped by the remaining lease term, a licensed freehold with gaming entitlements gears highest, and a freehold motel or park sits between them. The table below is what we see across the deals we place, and every figure in it is indicative rather than a quote. Our note on leasehold versus freehold motel finance works the same comparison from the loan side.
| Structure | Indicative gearing | Implied deposit | What caps it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leasehold accommodation | Typically around 40 to 50 per cent | Typically around 50 to 60 per cent | Remaining lease term, including options |
| Freehold pub with gaming entitlements | Typically around 65 per cent | Typically around 35 per cent | Going concern valuation and the licensed read |
| Freehold pub without gaming | Typically around 50 per cent | Typically around 50 per cent | Going concern valuation and trade strength |
| Freehold motel or caravan park | Typically around 60 to 70 per cent | Typically around 30 to 40 per cent | Going concern valuation over property and business |
| Management rights | Typically up to around 70 per cent of the agreements | Typically around 30 per cent or more | Remaining term of the caretaking and letting agreements |
From our broking, indicative
Two things about that table are worth saying plainly, because they are where deals actually move.
- The gearing applies to the valuation, not to the price you agreed. Where the going concern valuation lands under the contract price, the shortfall is added to your deposit, and on this asset class it lands under more often than first time buyers expect.
- Where you own other real estate, supporting security over it can lift the effective borrowing well beyond the figures above, because the lender is no longer relying on the accommodation asset alone.
- On timing, the pattern is qualitative rather than a number. A file that arrives complete, reconciled, with consents already requested, reaches credit approved materially sooner than one assembled document by document after submission. We do not publish an approval time, because it is set by the slowest third party in the chain and not by us.
Indicative only, based on deals we have placed, and stated as at August 2026. Figures vary by lender and by asset. This is not a quote, not an offer, not an approval likelihood and not a rate you will get. Actual terms depend on lender policy, the valuation and your circumstances at the time of application. Not financial advice.
What happens if the lender's valuation is lower than the purchase price?
The funding gap becomes yours to solve. The lender sizes its facility against the valuation or other accepted security basis, not simply the contract price, so a lower valuation can increase the cash or supporting security you need even where the lender is still willing to approve a loan.
The usual options are to renegotiate the price, add supporting property security, ask the vendor to leave part of the price in through vendor finance, or increase the cash contribution. Which option is cheapest and workable depends on the senior lender, the security and the vendor.
Do not assume a finance condition automatically protects every valuation shortfall. A lender may approve a smaller facility rather than decline the application, and the legal effect of that on your contract depends on the clause you signed. Have your solicitor deal with valuation risk before the finance date, not after it. Our note on the freehold and business split on a motel purchase shows how the security legs are sized.
How much lease term do you need to get finance?
Enough that the remaining term comfortably exceeds the loan term you are asking for, including options where the lender counts them. A lender will not lend beyond the life of the asset, and on a leasehold interest the document is the asset.
A short remaining term does not necessarily kill the deal, but it shortens the loan, which raises the repayment, which lowers the amount the trade can service. Where the term is tight, negotiating an extension with the landlord before settlement is worth more than shopping for a more generous lender.
The market this file is being written into
- 72.9% average room occupancy across Australian establishments with 10 rooms or more, up 1.9 percentage points on 2024. Source: Tourism Research Australia, Annual benchmark report, as at December 2025. National average, not a regional motel or small park figure.
- 340,662 rooms available in establishments with 10 rooms or more, up 0.8 per cent. Source: Tourism Research Australia, Annual benchmark report, as at December 2025.
- $81.1 billion direct tourism GDP, holding at 2.9 per cent of the national economy. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Tourism Satellite Account, as at the 2024-25 financial year.
- 696,000 filled jobs in tourism, up 2.0 per cent on the prior year. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Tourism Satellite Account, as at the 2024-25 financial year.
General information only, not financial advice. These are national published statistics and they are not a forecast, a valuation input or an indication of what any individual property will trade at. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a broker.
What identity and beneficial ownership evidence do you have to provide since 1 July 2026?
Identity documents for every individual behind the buying entity, the full structure documents, the ownership chain followed to natural persons, who controls the entity in practice, and evidence of where your deposit and equity are coming from. If you bought a motel in 2024 and are buying another one now, this is the one section where your last experience is an actively misleading guide.
AUSTRAC states the commencement plainly:
"AML/CTF obligations apply if you provide a designated service in table 6 from 1 July 2026."
AUSTRAC, Professional designated services. Read verbatim 13 August 2026.The reason it reaches an accommodation purchase is that the table 6 list includes the work your advisers do on the transaction. AUSTRAC describes one of those designated services as "assisting a person in organising, planning or executing a transaction, or otherwise acting for or on behalf of a person in a transaction, for equity or debt financing" relating to a body corporate or legal arrangement in the course of carrying on a business, with the customer of that service being "the person".
So real estate agents, conveyancers, lawyers and accountants are commonly reporting entities where they provide a designated service, which is why the requests land on you earlier and in more detail than they used to. One caution before the detail: the Act regulates services, not professions. Whether a particular business provides a designated service is a question for that business and its own advisers, and nothing here is legal advice.
Who counts as a beneficial owner when a trust or a company is buying?
Anyone who ultimately owns 25 per cent or more, and anyone who otherwise controls the customer, with no percentage attached to that second limb. AUSTRAC's definition reads:
"A beneficial owner is an individual who directly or indirectly: ultimately owns 25% or more of your customer, or otherwise controls your customer."
"Your customer may have more than one beneficial owner."
"If the owner of the company isn't an individual, you must keep following this chain of ownership until you can find the individual(s) who ultimately own or control your customer."
AUSTRAC, Overview of initial customer due diligence. Read verbatim 13 August 2026.The control limb catches people who own nothing, and that matters enormously here. A large share of Australian accommodation and letting businesses are held through discretionary trusts and layered company structures where the person actually running the arrangement holds no measurable stake. A file built only around the 25 per cent question is wrong by omission on exactly the structures this industry uses. If your buying entity is a trading trust, expect the trust deed, the appointor and the trustee company's ASIC record to be part of the conversation.
What to have ready
- Identity documents for every individual behind the buying entity, not just the signatory
- The full structure: company constitution and ASIC extract, or the trust deed with its schedules
- The ownership chain followed all the way to natural persons, written down
- Who controls the entity in practice, including appointors and anyone with a power of removal
- Where the deposit and equity are coming from, evidenced, before you are asked
What does not close it out
- Stopping at the 25 per cent shareholding and calling the test satisfied
- Naming the trustee company and treating the trust as answered
- Leaving a corporate shareholder in the chain unexplained
- Treating it as your conveyancer's paperwork rather than your file
- Assuming the 2024 version of this request is the 2026 version
What does the lease file need, and why does the landlord's deed of consent gate settlement?
The lease file needs the lease itself, every variation and side deed, the rent review history, the outgoings position, and a clear statement of the remaining term including options. On a leasehold accommodation business the lease is not a supporting document, it is the asset, and its remaining term caps the lending in the same way a caretaking authorisation does on management rights.
Sitting on top of that is the document that ends more settlements than any other: the landlord's deed of consent. It is the instrument by which the landlord consents to your lender taking security over the leasehold business, and it usually carries a right of entry allowing the lender to step in and keep the business trading.
Two features make it a settlement gate. It is the lender's own form, so it cannot be started until you have chosen a lender. And it commonly requires the landlord's own financier to sign as well, which adds an approval chain you have no visibility of. It is a condition precedent on most leasehold accommodation files, which means no consent, no settlement, regardless of how complete the rest of the pack is.
Who pays the landlord's legal costs on the consent?
Usually you do for the assignment, but not for everything, and in some states there is a statutory limit on what can be charged. This is one of the few places in the whole pack where legislation is on the buyer's side, and almost nobody tells buyers about it.
Victoria is the clearest example. Where the lease is a retail premises lease, section 51 of the Retail Leases Act 2003 provides that the tenant is not liable for the landlord's legal or other expenses relating to negotiating, preparing or executing the lease, obtaining the mortgagee's consent to the lease, or the landlord's compliance with the Act.
Assignment is treated differently. Section 23 does not prevent the landlord recovering costs reasonably incurred in connection with an assignment or sub-lease and obtaining any necessary consents. The Victorian Small Business Commission puts the condition plainly: the landlord can claim reasonable legal or other expenses incurred in connection with an assignment, including investigating a proposed assignee, provided the landlord and tenant have agreed that the tenant will pay those expenses, and a fee calculated as a fixed percentage of rent might instead be key money.
Can a landlord charge you a fee to consent to the assignment?
Not as a price for the consent itself, where the retail lease legislation applies. The Victorian Small Business Commission states that seeking or accepting key money, or any consideration for the goodwill of any business carried out at the retail premises, is prohibited under the Retail Leases Act 2003, that a lease including it is deemed void to that extent, and that a landlord who breaches those provisions risks a fine of 50 penalty units.
Its own worked example is exactly the leasehold accommodation scenario: a landlord agreeing to consent to an assignment only if the existing tenant first pays the landlord a lump sum, where the tenant receives nothing in return other than the consent. Reasonable costs of processing the assignment are recoverable. A payment for the consent is not.
Sources: Victorian Small Business Commission, Paying key money, and the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) sections 23 and 51. Verified 14 August 2026. Victoria only, and only where the lease is a retail premises lease, which is a question for your solicitor on your specific lease. Other states have their own retail lease legislation with different tests. General information, not legal advice.
On what grounds can a landlord refuse consent to the assignment?
On the grounds the legislation or the lease allows, not at will. Victoria's Retail Leases Act deals with it directly in two places: section 60 sets out when the landlord can withhold consent to an assignment, and section 61 sets out the procedure for obtaining that consent. The practical effect is that you have to satisfy the landlord on much the same ground the lender covers, financial standing and experience, and the landlord has to follow a process rather than simply going quiet.
Outside retail lease legislation the assignment clause in the lease governs, and it commonly allows the landlord to withhold consent on stated grounds. Have your solicitor read the clause and confirm which regime applies before you sign, because it determines whether you have a remedy when the consent stalls.
Is consent to assignment the same as the deed of consent to the lender?
No, and buyers conflate them constantly. Consent to assignment is the landlord agreeing that you replace the vendor as tenant. The deed of consent is the landlord agreeing that your lender can take security over the leasehold and step in if it needs to. They are separate documents, often signed weeks apart, and only the second one is on the lender's form and needs the lender chosen. Your contract usually turns on the first, and your finance usually turns on the second.
Does the lender count the option periods in the remaining term?
Sometimes, and the answer is worth getting before you rely on it. An option to renew is a right you hold and have not yet exercised, so a conservative lender sizes the loan against the term certain and treats the options as upside. A lender more comfortable with the asset class may count some or all of the option period where the option is clearly documented and not conditional on the landlord's discretion.
Nobody publishes a rule on this, because it is credit policy rather than law. Ask the question explicitly and early, because a deal that works on 9 years plus a 5 year option and does not work on 9 years alone is a deal you want to discover before the finance clause runs, not after.
| Consent or approval | Who gives it | What drives the timing |
|---|---|---|
| Consent to assignment of the lease | The landlord, on the terms the lease sets | The landlord's own approvals. No published timeframe; request it the day due diligence starts |
| Landlord's deed of consent and right of entry to the lender | The landlord, frequently plus the landlord's financier, on the lender's form | Cannot begin until the lender is chosen, which is why it is usually the last item and the one that slips |
| Body corporate approval of a management rights transfer | The body corporate, by resolution | The scheme's meeting cycle, not your contract dates |
| Liquor licence transfer | The state or territory liquor authority | The regulator's published process. Varies by state, see the licence section |
| Discharge of the vendor's existing security | The vendor's financier | The outgoing lender's discharge queue. Book it in early; it settles simultaneously with your advance |
| Your own lender's formal approval and documents | The lender, after valuation | The completeness of your file, and the valuer's availability for a going concern inspection |
If the lease term or assignment wording is already making the deal hard to size, read the leasehold interest entry before treating the landlord consent as a settlement-only issue.
What does a management rights file need that a motel file does not?
The caretaking agreement, the letting authorisation, the body corporate records and resolutions, the scheme's regulation module, the manager's unit title or lease, the letting pool details, and the real estate licence for the letting business. There is no landlord and no lease over a trading premises, so the documents that gate the deal are the scheme's rather than a landlord's.
How long does the body corporate have to approve a transfer?
30 days in Queensland, running from when the committee is given the information it needs. The Queensland Government states that after being given the information necessary to decide on a transfer, the committee has 30 days to decide. The committee also cannot unreasonably withhold approval.
Read the trigger carefully, because it is where transfers actually stall. The clock does not start when the contract is signed, and it does not start when the seller writes to the committee. It starts when the committee has everything it reasonably needs, so an incomplete submission simply never starts the 30 days at all. Build your settlement date on 30 days from a complete submission, not 30 days from contract.
Source: Queensland Government, Transferring an engagement, verified 14 August 2026. Queensland only. General information, not legal advice.
What does the body corporate interview cover?
You, essentially. In deciding whether to approve a proposed transfer the body corporate may have regard to the character of the proposed transferee and related persons, their financial standing, their competence, qualifications and experience, and the proposed terms of the transfer. The interview questions follow those headings.
Treat it as a second credit assessment run by people who will be your clients. Expect to produce a resume, references, evidence of your financial position, details of any relevant training, and to answer questions about serious offence history for yourself and related persons. Prepare it alongside the lender's file rather than after it, because the two ask for much the same material.
Is there a fee payable to the body corporate on a transfer?
There can be, and it falls on the seller rather than the buyer, but it shapes the negotiation either way. The Queensland Government states that where the engagement is transferred within 2 years of the initial contract date, the person transferring may be asked to pay 3 per cent of the fair market value of the transfer if it is approved in the first year, or 2 per cent if approved after the first year but before the end of the second.
The person transferring may ask the body corporate to waive the fee on grounds of genuine hardship, supported by information given to the committee.
Why a buyer should care: if the seller bought recently, that fee is a live cost sitting on their side of the settlement, and it is a reason a short-held management rights business is priced the way it is.
What is the maximum term of a caretaking agreement in Queensland?
It depends on which regulation module applies to the scheme. The Queensland Government states it directly:
"The Standard Module allows for a maximum term of 10 years."
"The Accommodation and Commercial modules allow for a maximum term of 25 years."
Queensland Government, Engaging a service contractor. Read verbatim 13 August 2026. Queensland only, set by the module that applies to the specific community titles scheme. Never a national rule, and general information rather than legal advice.That statutory cap is why management rights and motel leases behave the same way in a credit assessment even though they look nothing alike. In both cases the remaining term of a document, not the quality of the trade, sets the outer limit of what can be lent. Outside Queensland, community titles and strata legislation differs state by state and these caps do not apply, so check the regime where the scheme sits.
What is a top-up, and why does it need a general meeting?
A top-up is an extension of the caretaking and letting agreement term back toward the statutory maximum, and it is a different decision from the transfer, made by a different body. This is the distinction that wrecks timelines.
The committee can approve the transfer of the existing engagement. It cannot amend that engagement. An amendment, which is what an extension of term is, has to be approved by ordinary resolution at a general meeting of the body corporate. So a purchase that depends on a top-up depends on a general meeting being called and held, not on a committee decision inside 30 days.
Two further points buyers get wrong. Neither the seller nor the buyer is obliged to agree to an amendment as a condition of the transfer being approved, and equally the body corporate cannot be made to grant one. It is a negotiation on both sides. If your loan sizing depends on a longer term, price the risk that the top-up does not happen. The management rights guide covers the scheme side in full, and the management rights glossary entry is the short version.
What happens if the body corporate refuses the transfer?
The refusal has to be reasonable, and if it is not, the dispute has a forum. Queensland's body corporate legislation constrains a committee from unreasonably withholding approval, and disputes about a scheme's decisions run through the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management and, where they proceed, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
That is a remedy, not a plan. A dispute takes far longer than any settlement date allows, so the practical answer is to make the submission complete, prepare properly for the interview, and give the committee its full 30 days. Get legal advice from a solicitor experienced in management rights before you rely on any of this.
Why does a lender ask about the letting pool?
Because the letting pool is the income, and unlike a lease it can leave. Owners in the scheme can withdraw units from the pool or place them with an outside agent, so a lender reads the number of units in the pool, how long they have been in it, and how concentrated the pool is among a few owners. A falling pool over the last 2 years is a harder file than a stable one, whatever the current figures say.
What does a caravan park file need that a motel file does not?
Agreements for every long term resident, an ownership schedule for the cabins and homes, the tourist and long term site split, and the park's registration. In Queensland add a set of documents created by reforms most listings never mention. A park with permanents is not a motel with grass, and the difference is regulatory rather than cosmetic.
Which law covers a long term resident in a Queensland park?
It depends on who owns the dwelling, and there are two entirely separate Acts. The Residential Tenancies Authority states that the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 applies to tenancy agreements for caravans, caravan sites, houseboats and rented manufactured homes, while manufactured homes occupied by their owners are covered by the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003.
So one park can carry both. A resident renting a park-owned cabin sits under the tenancy legislation, on a Moveable dwelling tenancy agreement (Form 18b), which gives the right to occupy a moveable dwelling for residential rather than holiday purposes. A resident who owns their manufactured home and rents only the site sits under the other Act, on a site agreement. Ask for both sets, separately, and do not accept a single spreadsheet as the answer.
Source: Residential Tenancies Authority, Caravan parks and manufactured homes, verified 14 August 2026. Queensland only; other states have their own regimes. General information, not legal advice.
Where is the line between a tourist site and a long term one?
42 days in Queensland. The Residential Tenancies Authority states that the Act covers short term moveable dwelling tenancies of up to 42 days as well as long term tenancies, and that it does not apply to holiday lettings. Cross that line and the agreement, the notice periods and the termination rules all change.
That matters because the tourist half of the income is commercial and flexible while the long term half is regulated and sticky. A park presented as a tourist park that is quietly running long stays has a compliance position you are inheriting.
Where a long term tenancy exists, the operator must give the tenant a signed Form 18b, a copy of the park rules, an entry condition report and the pocket guide for tenants, and any bond must be lodged with the RTA. Ask to see that those things were actually done.
Can you raise site rent after you buy a Queensland park?
General increases are capped, but the Act also has a separate special-cost increase process. For ordinary site-rent increases on manufactured-home sites, the annual ceiling is the higher of CPI or 3.5 per cent, and market-rent reviews are prohibited. Existing terms that are more favourable to the home owner are not overridden by the ceiling.
The prohibition reaches backwards, which is the part that catches buyers. The Queensland Government states that market rent review clauses in existing site agreements are voided, so a clause sitting in the agreements you are about to inherit can no longer be used.
Where a voided clause leaves no alternative basis in the agreement, the park owner may increase site rent based on CPI, and the Act allows a park owner to ask the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to set a new basis where the alternative is not CPI and will not be enough to maintain the park's viability.
Read that against any listing projecting income growth from a rent review. On the manufactured-home side of a Queensland park, that growth is capped by statute, and the valuation and serviceability position you borrow against have to be built on the capped figure.
Do not turn that into "rent can never rise above the cap". Division 3 of the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003 separately allows a park owner to propose a special increase for significant increased operating costs, unforeseen significant repairs or significant upgrades, subject to the statutory notice, agreement and dispute process. The special-cost pathway is not a market-rent review and should be modelled separately.
For a buyer, the practical question is therefore two-part: what general increase basis sits in each site agreement, and is the vendor relying on any special-cost increase or unresolved dispute? Any listing projecting a simple market catch-up deserves immediate scrutiny because market-rent reviews are prohibited. Sources: Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works, Manufactured homes legislation changes; Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003, division 3. Verified 14 August 2026. Queensland only; general information, not legal advice.
What is the buyback scheme, and does it transfer to you?
It is an opt-in obligation that can end with the park owner having to buy a resident's home, and yes, you take on the park owner's side of it. The Queensland Government describes the scheme as available to an eligible home owner where the home has been on the market for 6 months without selling, the home is vacant, and the park owner has been appointed to sell it where the park owner offers selling services.
The consequences are dated and specific. At 6 months after a home owner opts in, the park owner must reduce that home owner's site rent by 25 per cent. At 12 months after joining the scheme, the park owner must buy the manufactured home. Ask the vendor, in writing, how many home owners have opted in, when each opted in, and what the resulting obligations are. It is a contingent liability that belongs in your due diligence and in your funding position, and it appears in no standard contract disclosure.
Which Queensland park documents did the 2024 reforms create?
Several, and their absence is itself a finding. The reforms commenced in stages and the Queensland Government records these as in force. From 20 February 2025, park owners must prepare a residential park comparison document (Form 16), host it on a website for the park, and link it in any online advertisement for the sale of a home.
Also from 20 February 2025, park owners must apply to register new parks and it is an offence to operate an unregistered park. And from 6 December 2025, all buyers of a manufactured home must enter a new site agreement with the park owner rather than taking an assignment of the seller's agreement, except on a transfer to a family member.
Two more sit on the operator. From 6 December 2025 the precontractual disclosure process requires a prospective buyer to be given the comparison document, a Home Owners Information Document and a copy of the site agreement at least 21 days before the park owner enters the site agreement, reducible to 7 days only by a waiver signed by the buyer's lawyer. And from 7 June 2026 sale agreements for a manufactured home on site must be in the approved form.
What is a maintenance and capital replacement plan, and why does a lender care?
It is a documented, consulted, regularly revised plan for the park's capital items, and it is now a legal obligation on many Queensland parks. The Queensland Government states that interim plans were required to be in place by 7 June 2026 with ordinary plans required by 31 December 2027, that plans must be revised at least every 2 years, developed in consultation with home owners and the home owners committee where one exists, and provided to home owners and the department within 28 days of being prepared or revised.
Exemptions are defined: a park is exempt where it contains 15 or fewer manufactured home sites, or where manufactured homes make up less than 30 per cent of total sites in a mixed use park. Where the exemption does not apply, parks have 12 months to prepare a plan, and parks registered on or after 31 December 2025 have 2 years.
For a buyer this is gold, and almost nobody asks for it. The plan tells you what capital the park needs and when, in the vendor's own words, filed with a department. Ask for it in week 1. If it does not exist and the park is not exempt, you have found both a compliance gap and an undisclosed capital programme.
Source: Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works, Manufactured homes legislation changes, page last updated 13 July 2026, verified 14 August 2026. Queensland only. General information, not legal advice; confirm the current position with your solicitor.
What changed for Victorian residential park documents on 1 July 2026?
A buyer of a Victorian park should now sample the operator's new-form site-agreement and disclosure process, not just the rent roll. Consumer Affairs Victoria states that Part 4A site agreements entered into after 1 July 2026 must use the standard form, and prospective site tenants must receive prescribed information about rent, fees, facilities, park rules, emergency matters and how assignment or sale works.
The operator must provide the site agreement for a 20-day consideration period before asking the prospective site tenant to sign, followed by a 5-business-day cooling-off period after signing.
Those are resident protections rather than conditions of your business-purchase contract, but they are compliance obligations you inherit as park owner. During due diligence, ask for a sample of the agreements entered since 1 July 2026, the disclosure notice, the park rules and evidence of the process actually used. Source: Consumer Affairs Victoria, Site agreements, site owners' rights and responsibilities, updated 7 July 2026 and verified 14 August 2026. Victoria only; general information, not legal advice.
Who owns the cabins, and why does the answer matter?
Not always the park, and what the resident owns is not your security. Relocatable homes, manufactured homes, annexes, decks and hard awnings are frequently owned by the occupant rather than the operator, which means they are not part of what you are buying even though they are sitting on your land. Ask for a schedule naming each structure and its owner. A valuation built on the wrong assumption gets corrected late and always downward.
Why does the approved site count matter more than the actual one?
Because the income you can lawfully earn is set by what is approved, not by what is currently pitched. Parks grow organically over decades and the number of sites in use does not always match the number approved. Where the two differ, the difference is a risk a valuer and a lender will discount rather than fund. Confirm the approved count with the local authority during due diligence.
For the finance consequences of the site mix, tenure and going-concern valuation, continue with our guide on how to buy a caravan park.
Which licences have to transfer, and who has to approve them?
Any liquor licence attaching to the premises has to be transferred into the new operator's name by the authority in that state, and until it is, the new operator generally cannot supply liquor. That makes the licence a settlement gate in the same category as the landlord's consent. It is a state question rather than a national one, because each state and territory runs its own regime.
How does a liquor licence transfer work in New South Wales?
Liquor and Gaming NSW frames the trigger simply: "You can transfer a liquor licence when you buy or sell a business." Its published guidance on a consented transfer states that provisional approval is usually given so the business can continue operating, and that confirmation of the transfer will take about 60 days if all relevant training has been completed.
On an owner in possession application, where the outgoing licensee has vacated, been evicted or has not agreed, the guidance states that provisional approval is usually given within 10 business days, that the outgoing licensee must be advised in writing and has 3 days to make a submission, and that the intended transfer date cannot be less than 10 business days after the application is received. Source: Service NSW, Apply to transfer a liquor licence, verified 14 August 2026.
How does a liquor licence transfer work in Victoria?
The Victorian guidance is built around the application rather than the sale: "You can apply to transfer a liquor licence or permit into your name." It gives the triggers as buying a business that already has a licence or permit, or taking over a licensed venue, and states that "The person or entity taking over the licence or permit normally applies for the transfer".
It instructs applicants to "Apply at least 8 weeks before you want the change to take effect", and it is explicit on the consequence: "You must not supply alcohol until" the transfer is granted and you have the legal right to occupy the venue. Source: Victorian Government, Transfer your liquor licence, read 14 August 2026.
How does a liquor licence transfer work in Queensland?
Queensland states the obligation as a requirement rather than an option: "If you take over the operation of a Queensland business with a liquor licence, you must apply to transfer the licence from the previous operator." It also sets out the trading position in the gap: "You won't be able to sell or supply liquor at the licensed premises until you're granted an interim authority to trade, i.e. a temporary approval to continue trading until the transfer is finalised, or the transfer is approved." Source: Queensland Government, Transferring a liquor licence, read 14 August 2026.
Those three are set out because they are the states this cluster's buyers transact in most often. They are not a national rule, and every other state and territory has its own authority, application and timeframes, all of which can change. Check the authority where the premises sits and read the current position rather than the version a previous purchase left you with.
Who has to hold the licence or be the approved manager on day 1?
A real person with a current certificate, and in Queensland that certificate takes a minimum of 10 hours to obtain. Business Queensland states that liquor licensees who are individuals, approved managers and some permit holders must hold a current responsible management of licensed venues (RMLV) certificate, that RMLV replaces the need for separate responsible service of alcohol training, that the course takes a minimum of 10 hours through an approved trainer, and that the certificate remains current for 3 years.
It is also an operating requirement, not just an application one. Business Queensland states that certain licence types require an approved manager, or an individual licensee, to be onsite or reasonably available during ordinary and extended trading hours.
This is a quiet blocker on family purchases. If nobody in the buying group holds the certificate and no qualified manager is being retained, the licence cannot transfer to anyone and your settlement date is set by a training course rather than by a lender. Book it in week 1. In NSW the equivalent evidence is a responsible service of alcohol qualification, plus responsible conduct of gambling where gaming machines operate, and other states have their own courses. Source: Business Queensland, Responsible management of licensed venues training, verified 14 August 2026.
How do you prove legal tenure before you have settled?
With the contract and the lease or assignment documents, not with a title you do not yet hold. This is the structural awkwardness at the centre of every licensed purchase: the authority wants evidence that you will have lawful occupation of the premises, and you do not have occupation until settlement, which cannot happen until the licence position is resolved.
It is soluble, and the solutions differ by state, which is exactly why the licence application has to be lodged early and prepared with your solicitor rather than filled in the week before settlement. Victoria makes the sequencing explicit in stating that you must not supply alcohol until the transfer is granted and you have the legal right to occupy the venue. Queensland resolves the trading gap through the interim authority to trade. Plan the settlement date around whichever mechanism applies where the premises sits.
Where the venue also holds gaming entitlements the analysis is separate, and we deal with it in our note on gaming entitlements and pub and hotel finance. The security implications of a licensed freehold are covered in lender security over a licensed freehold venue, and our guide to accommodation finance for licensed venues covers how the smaller approvals, from food business registration through to local accommodation approvals, sit alongside the finance file.
What has to be agreed in writing for the sale to be GST-free?
One clause, in the contract, before signing. The Australian Taxation Office treats a sale as a GST-free supply of a going concern only where a set of conditions is met, and the one that catches people is documentary rather than commercial: the parties have to have agreed, in writing, that the sale is of a going concern. The ATO states the conditions this way:
"The purchaser and seller have agreed in writing that the sale is of a going concern."
"The sale is for payment."
"The purchaser is registered or required to be registered for GST."
"the business is carried on by you until the day of sale"
"everything that's necessary for the continued operation of the business"
Australian Taxation Office, Selling a going concern. Read verbatim 13 August 2026 and re-confirmed 14 August 2026. The conditions are cumulative and all must be met. General information, not tax advice; confirm with a registered tax agent.The document consequence is what matters for your file. The written agreement lives in the contract of sale, so it is drafted by your solicitor or conveyancer before signing, not negotiated afterwards and not fixed at settlement.
On a purchase of this size the difference between a contract that carries the clause and one that does not is a GST amount you either have to fund or do not. That is why it is a finance question as much as a tax one, and why your broker will ask to see the clause rather than take your word that the sale is a going concern.
Does the going concern clause change the stamp duty as well?
In Queensland it can, because duty is assessed on the GST-inclusive amount. Queensland Revenue Office states that if GST is payable, duty must be calculated on the GST-inclusive amount. So a sale that qualifies as a GST-free supply of a going concern removes GST from the consideration, and the duty is then assessed on the lower figure.
That makes the clause a duty question as well as a GST question and a finance question, which is three reasons to get it into the contract before signing rather than one. The detailed ATO view on what a supply of a going concern is sits in ruling GSTR 2002/5, and the drafting is a matter for your solicitor and a registered tax agent.
What a going concern sale actually is, and what it does and does not transfer, is a separate subject covered in going concern explained, with the short definition in the going concern glossary entry. How one is valued sits in going concern valuation explained, and how the clause plays out through to settlement on a licensed venue is in the pub and hotel going concern sale and settlement guide.
What are the settlement adjustments nobody warns you about?
Forward bookings and the guest deposits already taken for them, stock on hand at changeover, employee entitlements, and the usual rates, land tax and outgoings apportionments. These are not lender documents strictly speaking, but they change the cash you need on the day, which is why they belong in the same file.
Who gets the money for bookings that stay after settlement?
You should, and it has to be adjusted for at settlement. The vendor has been taking deposits for stays that will happen under your ownership, and unless the contract deals with it, that money stays in the vendor's account while you provide the accommodation. Ask for the forward bookings report and the deposits held figure early, because the number moves right up to the settlement date and your solicitor needs it to prepare the statement of adjustments.
How is stock handled at changeover?
Usually by a stocktake at or immediately before settlement, valued at cost and paid for on top of the purchase price. On a pub or a licensed venue this is a meaningful number and it is commonly excluded from the headline price, so read the contract to see whether stock is in or out. Cash on hand in the tills and any float is normally dealt with the same way.
What does a PPSR search actually need to clear before settlement?
It checks whether personal property you are buying is subject to a registered security interest. On an accommodation acquisition that can matter for vehicles, equipment, financed plant, intellectual property and other business assets. A seller or organisation search may need to be supplemented by a serial-number search for particular assets, and a clear result should be kept as a search certificate.
If the search identifies a security interest over an asset you are meant to receive, do not assume paying the purchase price removes it. Your solicitor needs to work out whether it must be released, discharged or otherwise dealt with before or at settlement.
The PPSR itself warns that a buyer can face repossession risk where property is bought subject to another party's security interest, although purchaser-protection rules and non-registered interests make the legal position more nuanced than a simple "search equals ownership" test. Sources: Australian Government PPSR, How the PPSR protects buyers and lessees and Searching the register. General information, not legal advice.
What happens to staff entitlements on a transfer of business?
Some service must be recognised, some entitlements can be treated differently by a new employer, and long service leave needs its own state-law check rather than a simple associated-entity rule.
| Entitlement | Position on a transfer of business |
|---|---|
| Sick and carer's leave | Service must be recognised |
| Requests for flexible working arrangements | Service must be recognised |
| Parental leave | Service must be recognised |
| Annual leave | May be declined only where the new employer is not an associated entity of the old employer. Where service is not recognised, the old employer must pay it out |
| Redundancy pay | May be declined only where the new employer is not an associated entity |
| Long service leave | State-law and agreement specific. Do not assume it can be declined. In Queensland, accumulated long service leave transfers when a business changes hands and the new employer continues to employ the staff, and Business Queensland describes that transfer as non-negotiable. In Victoria, where a business changes hands and the employee remains, the new employer becomes responsible for the employee's long service leave across the continuous period of employment. |
| Unfair dismissal qualifying period | May be declined only where the new employer is not an associated entity |
| Notice of termination | May be declined only where the new employer is not an associated entity |
That is general information rather than workplace-relations advice. The national Fair Work rules interact with state long-service-leave laws and any registered agreement, so the employee schedule belongs in the settlement adjustments and in a transaction-specific workplace/legal review. Sources: Fair Work Ombudsman, Employee entitlements on a transfer of business; Business Queensland, Transferring long service leave; Business Victoria, Long service leave: change of employer. Checked 14 August 2026.
Licensed venues carry the same adjustment problem at larger scale. Our going-concern sale and settlement guide follows the money and documents through changeover.
How long a finance clause do you actually need?
There is no fixed Australian finance-clause period for an accommodation business purchase. The date has to leave enough time for the lender to assess the file and accept the going-concern valuation, while the contract separately protects any lease assignment, body corporate, licence or other approval that has not been cleared. A generic residential-style timeframe can be too short for a transaction with several third-party queues.
The important distinction is between a lender credit decision and the whole settlement chain. Vendor records have to arrive and reconcile, a lender has to be chosen, the valuation has to be instructed and accepted, and some lender-required deeds or consents cannot be finalised until the lender is known.
Can you sign a business purchase contract before finance is approved?
Yes, but only if the contract deals with the risks that are still unresolved. Depending on the transaction, that can include finance, due diligence, a satisfactory valuation, lease assignment, body corporate approval and a licence transfer. The exact conditions and notices are legal drafting, so have your solicitor or conveyancer settle them before you sign.
A subject-to-finance clause is not a promise that the contract waits while your application is open. Australian legal-practice guidance records repeated claims where business purchasers let a finance condition expire, received a valuation too low for the amount they needed, or assumed a requested extension had been agreed without clear written confirmation. Source: Legal Practitioners' Liability Committee, Business sale and purchase, read 14 August 2026. General information, not legal advice.
What if the finance date arrives and the lender has not given final approval?
Deal with the contract before the deadline, not with the lender after it. If approval is still conditional, the amount is insufficient, or the lender is still assessing the file, speak to your solicitor before the finance date about the rights the actual clause gives you, including whether an extension should be requested or another step must be taken. Do not assume silence, an oral conversation with the vendor or an application marked "in progress" preserves your rights.
Whether an extension, termination right or other remedy exists depends on the wording and the governing state law. The finance clause should therefore be read alongside the valuation risk, because a lender can potentially approve a smaller facility after a low valuation rather than simply decline the application.
Is conditional approval the same as formal approval or a letter of offer?
No, and the labels are not standardised across Australian lenders. Treat the wording on your own approval as the source of truth. As one current example, NAB's online business-lending process describes a conditionally approved or referred application as one where further verification is required, and describes an unconditionally approved application as the point at which the borrower proceeds to set up the facility and accept the Letter of Offer.
For an accommodation purchase, the useful question is therefore not just "has credit approved it?" but "what conditions still have to be satisfied before funds can be released?" Ask the lender or broker for the outstanding conditions in writing. A valuation condition, security document, landlord or body-corporate consent, licence requirement, insurance condition or signed loan document can still sit between an approval message and settlement. Lender terminology varies, so ask for the wording that applies to your facility.
In practice, indicative
What we suggest buyers negotiate for, recognising that vendors and agents push the other way and this is a commercial negotiation rather than a rule.
- A due diligence period long enough to receive and reconcile records you have not yet seen, rather than one sized on the assumption they arrive immediately.
- A finance condition that leaves room for a going-concern valuation and a real credit decision, not just time to lodge an application.
- Separate protection for a lease assignment, body corporate approval, licence transfer or other consent where the transaction needs it, rather than assuming the finance clause does every job.
- A settlement date that sits after the known external approvals, with any extension mechanism drafted by your solicitor where appropriate.
Indicative only and based on deals we have placed, as at August 2026. Contract conditions are a matter for your solicitor or conveyancer, not your broker, and the drafting has to suit your specific contract. Not legal advice and not financial advice.
If you want speed, compress the front of the sequence rather than pretending the back of it does not exist. Get the records, contract and structure in front of the finance and legal teams early, and our note on financing a fast accommodation purchase covers the finance instruments that can move quickly once the file is ready.
In what order do you assemble the file?
Start with the items that can wait on somebody else. Your own identity file and business plan can be progressed in parallel, but vendor records, landlord or body corporate material, licence steps and a lender-instructed valuation all depend on other people and therefore belong on the critical path.
Assembly order, longest lead time first
- Before you sign. Have your solicitor settle the going-concern wording and the finance, due diligence, valuation and approval conditions the particular deal needs.
- Day 1 of due diligence. Request the lease and every variation, or the caretaking and letting agreements and scheme records. At the same time start any landlord, body corporate or regulator process that can legally begin before a lender is chosen.
- Same week. Ask the vendor for statements, tax returns, BAS, bank evidence and the booking, occupancy or letting-pool export as one request covering identical periods.
- Same week. Build your identity, structure and source-of-funds file, and start the business plan and experience summary. These are the items you control, so they should never be the reason credit waits.
- Same week. Confirm who will hold any required licence or approved-manager role and book any qualification that person still needs.
- As soon as the trading evidence stacks up. Choose the lender and get the complete application in. Lender selection unlocks the lender-specific valuation and deed-of-consent process.
- Immediately after. Let the lender instruct the valuation and issue any lender form of landlord deed, right of entry or other condition-precedent document.
- Before the finance date. Make sure the approval is in writing, for an amount that actually completes the purchase, and that your solicitor knows about any outstanding conditions or shortfall.
- Before settlement. Finalise forward bookings and deposits held, the stocktake method, employee entitlements, licence or body corporate approvals, loan documents, settlement funds and the vendor financier's discharge.
What happens after the lender gives formal approval?
Formal approval is not settlement. The loan documents still have to be issued and signed, the lender's conditions precedent have to be cleared, security documents and consents have to be completed, the outgoing financier has to discharge its security, and your solicitor has to finalise the settlement adjustments and the cash required from you.
Ask for a written list of outstanding lender conditions and put it beside your solicitor's settlement checklist. That is the point where a buyer stops asking "has the loan been approved?" and starts asking "what still has to happen before funds can be released?" The settlement adjustments section covers the amounts that keep moving right up to changeover.
If the dates are compressed rather than merely busy, our note on financing a fast accommodation purchase shows which finance steps can genuinely be accelerated and which external approvals still have to run.
What does assembling the pack cost, and who pays for what?
You pay for most of it, including several items produced by other people. Buyers budget the deposit and forget the pack, and on a leasehold licensed asset the pack is not a rounding error. Every line below is a cost you should have in your settlement budget before you sign, and the amounts vary widely by state, asset and adviser, so treat this as a list of things to get quoted rather than a price list.
| Item | Who pays | When |
|---|---|---|
| Your solicitor or conveyancer | You | Through due diligence and at settlement |
| Going concern valuation | You, though the lender instructs it | On instruction, before formal approval |
| Landlord's legal costs on consent and the deed | Usually you, under the lease costs clause | On or before settlement |
| Landlord's financier's costs, where involved | Commonly flows through to you | On or before settlement |
| Liquor licence transfer application fee | You, as incoming licensee | On lodgement with the authority |
| Approved manager or responsible service training | You or your nominee, per person certified | Before the transfer is determined; allow at least 10 hours of course time in Queensland |
| Body corporate search and approval costs | Usually you | During due diligence |
| ASIC, PPSR and title searches | You, through your solicitor | During due diligence and refreshed near settlement |
| Accountant's review of the trading records | You | Before the finance date |
| Transfer duty on the land, where a freehold is bought | You | At settlement, from your own funds |
| Transfer duty on business assets, including goodwill, where the state treats them as dutiable | Usually you; treatment is state specific and Queensland can tax business assets | On assessment, from your own funds where duty applies |
| Body corporate transfer fee on management rights | The seller, where the engagement is transferred inside 2 years | On approval of the transfer |
| Registration and lodgement fees | You | At settlement |
| Stock at changeover | You, on top of the price where stock is excluded | At settlement, on the stocktake |
| Vendor's discharge costs | The vendor | At settlement |
The line buyers most often miss is the third one. A landlord's consent is not free, the costs clause in the lease commonly puts the reasonable costs on the tenant, and it arrives at the worst possible moment in the settlement budget.
Do you pay stamp duty on goodwill as well as the land?
In Queensland, goodwill and other Queensland business assets can form part of the dutiable property in a business acquisition; the answer is not nationally uniform. Queensland Revenue Office treats transfers of business assets as potentially dutiable and specifically warns that the existence of goodwill can make a transaction dutiable.
The practical funding point is not to budget duty only against the freehold land and assume the business side is invisible. Your solicitor or registered self assessor needs to identify which parts of the transaction are dutiable, how related transactions are treated, and what amount the assessment is based on.
One separate rule is easy to misread: Queensland Revenue Office asks for a detailed goodwill valuation by a practising accountant supported by 3 years of financial statements only when the business is being transferred between associated or related parties. It is not a general requirement for every arm's-length accommodation purchase.
Duty is state based, so confirm the position for the state where the assets sit with your solicitor and registered tax adviser. Sources: Queensland Revenue Office, Transfer duty on buying or restructuring a business and Lodging your business asset transfer documents, verified 14 August 2026.
If the contract uses going-concern treatment, keep the tax wording separate from the lending question. Our going concern explainer covers what the expression means and what has to be agreed.
What happens if a document is late for settlement?
A late finance or consent document does not automatically stop the contract clock. What happens next depends on the contract and the governing state law, but the consequences can include default or penalty interest, a notice to complete, termination rights and deposit risk. If a contractual date is already in danger, the useful call is to your solicitor before the deadline, not to the lender after it.
It is a substantial subject in its own right and we have written it up separately rather than compressing it here. If a date is already at risk, read our guide to a notice to complete in Australia before you do anything else, and speak to your solicitor the same day.
The reason sequencing matters more than diligence is that the two failures look identical from the outside. A buyer who requested the deed of consent on the day due diligence started and a buyer who requested it a fortnight before settlement can hand a lender the same complete file. Only one of them chose the settlement date.
What does the lender still want after settlement?
Annual financial statements, tax returns and BAS lodgements, and on many facilities a periodic test against the covenants in your loan agreement. The document pack does not end at settlement, it becomes a reporting cycle, and the buyers who find that painful are the ones who never set up the bookkeeping to produce it.
What should you set up in the first 90 days after settlement?
Build the next refinance file from day one. Set up monthly management accounts that reconcile to the booking or letting system and bank, keep BAS and tax work current, diary every facility covenant and review date, and separate any trust-account or licence reporting from ordinary business bookkeeping.
Also create a folder for the documents that move after takeover: forward-booking deposits, insurance renewals, lease or agreement notices, body corporate correspondence, licence renewals and major capital works. Twelve clean months of records are far more useful than trying to reconstruct the first year when you later want to refinance, release equity or buy a second site.
What covenants sit behind an accommodation facility?
Commonly a debt service cover test, sometimes a loan to value test, and on leasehold or agreement-based assets an obligation to keep the underlying document on foot and to tell the lender if it is at risk. Read the covenant schedule in your loan agreement rather than assuming it mirrors a home loan, and diarise the test dates. Where a covenant is going to be missed, the useful conversation happens before the test, not after it.
What extra reporting does a letting business carry?
A management rights letting business handles owners' money, which brings trust account obligations and audit requirements under the relevant state's agents legislation. That is a compliance cost and a real operational discipline from day 1, and it is separate from anything your lender asks for. Confirm the current requirements in your state with your accountant and your solicitor before settlement rather than after.
When does the file get reused?
Sooner than most buyers expect. A clean 12 to 24 months of trade under your ownership is what supports a refinance onto better terms, an equity release, or a second site, and the reporting you set up now is the evidence for all three. Our notes on refinancing and restructuring an accommodation facility and funding an accommodation expansion in stages pick the story up from there.
An accommodation acquisition file is not just a checklist, it is a queue. Six core items sit inside five evidence strands, and most of the asset-specific extras come from somebody who is not you. That is why a landlord deed, body corporate approval, licence transfer or lender condition can decide the settlement date even when your own documents are complete. The useful discipline is to identify every external dependency before the contract dates are locked in.
Layered on top, the identity half of the pack changed on 1 July 2026, and the beneficial owner test has a control limb with no percentage attached, which is precisely the limb that bites on the trust and layered company structures this industry runs on.
Key takeaway: request everything you do not control on day 1, choose your lender earlier than feels necessary, and negotiate the finance clause around the consent chain rather than around the credit decision.What do buyers ask next about the accommodation document pack?
Six core items: the signed contract and special conditions, financial statements and tax returns, matching BAS, occupancy and booking records, identity/structure/source-of-funds evidence, and your business plan and operating experience. A leasehold adds the lease and lender deed of consent; a licensed motel adds the liquor-licence process. See our how to buy a motel guide for the whole acquisition sequence.
Walk in walk out, meaning the business is offered as a going concern with the plant, equipment and goodwill included so you can trade from day 1. It is a marketing term rather than a legal one, and it does not tell you whether stock is included, whether the sale qualifies as a GST-free going concern, or whether you are buying the freehold or the lease. Check all three in the contract. See going concern explained for what actually transfers.
Yes. Many vendors release detailed records only after a confidentiality agreement, an accepted offer or a conditional contract. The practical protection is a due-diligence condition that gives you enough time to receive and test the records. Ask for statements, returns, BAS and trading-system evidence in one list covering identical periods. Our motel trading records note sets out the request.
Compare it to the adjusted net profit of the whole complex before rent. Industry commentary has long used a rent sitting at roughly 40 to 45 per cent of complex net profit as the workable band, and a new lease is commonly struck around there. A rent well above that leaves too little for the operator and shortens the list of lenders willing to look at it. Run that ratio first on any leasehold. Our note on leasehold versus freehold motel finance covers what each tenure supports.
It depends almost entirely on tenure. A leasehold is bought on a low multiple of adjusted net profit because you own goodwill, chattels and the right to trade for the balance of a lease that runs down. A freehold going concern commands a much higher multiple because you also own the land and buildings. A passive freehold investment is valued on the rent instead. Bands move with the market and by region, so treat any quoted multiple as market convention rather than a valuation. See going concern valuation explained.
The funding gap becomes yours to solve because the facility is sized against the lender-accepted valuation or security basis, not simply the contract price. The usual options are renegotiating the price, adding supporting property, using vendor finance, or contributing more cash. Do not assume a finance clause automatically protects a valuation shortfall; your solicitor needs to read the clause you signed.
Often yes, and it is one of the main ways buyers close a deposit gap on this asset class. Supporting security over property you already own lets a lender rely on something other than the accommodation business alone, which can lift the effective borrowing well above the gearing the going concern would support by itself. It also puts that property at risk, so weigh it properly with your solicitor. Our note on the freehold and business split on a motel purchase shows how the legs are sized.
A freehold going concern means you buy the land, buildings and operating business together. A leasehold interest means you buy the business and the right to operate from premises owned by somebody else. That difference changes the security, deposit, loan term and document pack because the lease and landlord consents become part of the asset.
It helps considerably and on some files it is a condition rather than a preference. Lenders on this asset class read your operating history against the specific asset, because the trade they are lending against depends on the operator. Where you have no direct experience, the workable answers are retaining the vendor's manager, employing an experienced manager, or completing relevant industry training before settlement. Put it in the business plan explicitly rather than leaving it to be discovered. Our motel finance guide covers how the operator is assessed.
Yes in practice, even though no statute requires one. It is one of only three documents in the whole pack that you produce yourself, and it is the only place a lender sees your intentions rather than the vendor's history. Cover the trade you are buying, the staffing model you will actually run, your experience against this asset, and what you will change. Treat it as an underwriting document, not a formality. Start it alongside the material on our accommodation finance hub.
Yes, but the contract needs to deal with the risks that are still unresolved. Depending on the deal that can include finance, due diligence, valuation, lease assignment, body corporate approval and a licence transfer. Subject-to-finance clauses have strict dates and notice requirements, so have your solicitor settle the wording before you sign and do not assume an application still in progress extends the deadline. Our note on financing a fast accommodation purchase covers what moves quickly and what does not.
There is no reliable national number because the timeline is usually set by the slowest external dependency. Vendor records have to reconcile, the lender may require a going-concern valuation, and leasehold, licensed or management-rights purchases can carry third-party approvals. A complete file reaches a decision materially sooner than one assembled after submission. Our fast accommodation purchase note covers the finance side.
It depends on the lease and the law that applies to it. Commercial leases commonly let the landlord test the incoming tenant's financial standing, experience and ability to perform the lease. Treat landlord approval as a separate workstream from lender approval and have your solicitor read the assignment clause before you sign. Background on tenure sits in the leasehold glossary entry.
Reasonable costs of processing the assignment, commonly yes where the lease says so. A payment for the consent itself, no, at least where retail lease legislation applies. In Victoria the Small Business Commission states that seeking or accepting key money, or any consideration for the goodwill of a business carried on at retail premises, is prohibited and deemed void, with a fine of 50 penalty units for a landlord who breaches it. Whether your lease is a retail premises lease is a question for your solicitor. Background on tenure sits in the leasehold glossary entry.
In Queensland the committee has 30 days after it has been given the information necessary to decide the transfer. An incomplete submission does not start that clock. Build the transaction timetable from a complete submission, not merely from the contract date, and expect the incoming operator's character, financial standing and experience to be considered. See our management rights guide.
Yes, though Queensland is where most of the market and most of the lender appetite sits, because the community titles regime there produced the long caretaking and letting agreements the lending is built on. Elsewhere the strata and community titles legislation differs, agreement terms are often shorter, and the term still caps the loan. Expect a more conservative read and a shorter facility where the remaining term is short. The management rights guide sets out the scheme side.
Only within a statutory cap, and not by market review. Following the 2024 amendments to the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003, site rent increases are limited to 3.5 per cent or CPI, whichever is higher, for current and future home owners, and market rent reviews are prohibited with existing market review clauses voided. Any listing projecting income growth from a rent review on the manufactured home side of a Queensland park is projecting something the legislation no longer allows. Confirm the current position with your solicitor. Related reading sits on our accommodation finance hub.
They stay, on their existing agreements, and you step into the operator's side of them. In Queensland the Residential Tenancies Authority states that the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 covers tenancy agreements for caravans, caravan sites and rented manufactured homes, while manufactured homes occupied by their owners fall under the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003. One park can carry both. Ask for each set of agreements separately rather than accepting a summary. Our guide to buying an underperforming accommodation business covers inherited obligations.
There is no national timeframe because each state and territory runs its own process. Current NSW guidance indicates about 60 days for confirmation of a consented transfer once relevant training is complete, with provisional approval commonly allowing continuity; Victorian guidance says to apply at least 8 weeks before the change should take effect; Queensland requires an interim authority or approved transfer before liquor can be sold. Check the current authority for the premises state. Our guide to licensed venue finance covers how the licence sits alongside the finance file.
Generally no. Victorian guidance states you must not supply alcohol until the transfer is granted and you have the legal right to occupy the venue. Queensland states you cannot sell or supply liquor until you are granted an interim authority to trade or the transfer is approved. NSW commonly issues a provisional approval so trade continues without interruption. The mechanism differs by state but the principle does not, so confirm your position with the authority before the settlement date. See lender security over a licensed freehold venue.
Your solicitor or conveyancer, negotiated with the vendor's, and it has to be in the contract before signing rather than fixed later. The Australian Taxation Office treats the sale as GST-free only where a set of cumulative conditions is met, one of which is that the purchaser and seller have agreed in writing that the sale is of a going concern. Neither your lender nor your broker drafts it. This is general information rather than tax advice, so confirm the drafting with a registered tax agent. See our going concern explainer.
In Queensland, yes. Queensland Revenue Office treats business assets including goodwill as dutiable property in their own right, so a going concern sale of land, plant, goodwill and the business name produces several dutiable transactions under one agreement. Duty is applied to the greater of the value of the business assets or the consideration paid, and where GST is payable it is calculated on the GST-inclusive amount. Treatment differs by state, so confirm yours with a registered tax agent. Our explainer on going concern covers what transfers.
Expect identity evidence for the individuals behind the buying entity, the documents that prove the ownership and control structure, and evidence showing where the deposit and equity are coming from. From 1 July 2026, new AML/CTF obligations apply when newly regulated professional service providers supply designated table 6 services, so advisers may ask for this material earlier and in more detail. The exact request depends on the service provider and structure. Structure background sits in the trading trust glossary entry.
AUSTRAC treats beneficial ownership as an ownership or control test. An individual who ultimately owns 25 per cent or more can be a beneficial owner, but control can also make somebody a beneficial owner without a measurable percentage. Trust and layered-company structures therefore have to be traced through to the natural people who ultimately own or control the customer. See the trading trust entry for structure background.
You should, and it has to be dealt with in the statement of adjustments. The vendor will have taken deposits for stays occurring after settlement, and unless the contract addresses it, that money sits with the vendor while you provide the accommodation. Ask for the forward bookings report and the deposits held figure early, and again close to settlement, because the number keeps moving. Your solicitor prepares the adjustment. Related reading on settlement mechanics sits in our going concern sale and settlement guide.
Frequently not, and where it is excluded you pay for it on top of the price following a stocktake at or just before settlement, valued at cost. On a licensed venue that is a meaningful number and it comes out of your own funds rather than the facility, so it belongs in the settlement budget. Cash floats in the tills are usually handled the same way. Read the contract to see which side of the line stock falls on. Our pub and hotel finance guide covers licensed venue purchases.
Not automatically, but service and entitlements are the issue rather than the jobs. On a transfer of business the Fair Work Ombudsman position is that a new employer must recognise service for sick and carer's leave, flexible working requests and parental leave, and may decline to recognise annual leave, redundancy, long service leave, unfair dismissal and notice only where it is not an associated entity of the old employer. Where annual leave is not recognised the old employer pays it out. Get workplace advice on your specific transaction. Our turnaround purchase guide covers staffing changes.
The contract does not automatically stop because a lender, landlord, valuer or regulator is late. What happens depends on the contract and state law, but consequences can include default or penalty interest, a notice to complete, termination rights and deposit risk. If a date is in danger, speak to your solicitor before the deadline and read our notice to complete guide.
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