Business & commercial finance · Melbourne, Australia wide
A lender prices what it can secure. Not what you’re worth.
Business acquisition, commercial property, SMSF, development and debt restructure — structured by a former bank credit assessor who builds and borrows on his own account.
Subject to lender criteria, security position and eligibility.
30 minutes with Priyank. No application, and no lender sees anything until you say so.
The levers in a lending outcome · tap one
The interest rate is the one lever you are ever shown. It is also the one that moves least. Every lender moves one. We move all eight.
The part nobody says out loud
The deposit was set by the lender’s limits. Not by yours.
The 30% deposit you have been quoted on a business purchase has nothing to do with you. A bank can secure bricks. It cannot secure goodwill — so it lends against the part it can hold, and asks you to find the rest.
The rate on a facility written three years ago has nothing to do with you either. It was priced against the security position you held then. No bank has ever rung a customer to say their risk has improved.
Same mechanism, two costumes. One arrives as cash you have to find before you can move. The other arrives every month, quietly, for twenty years.
Under 5% of small business lending in Australia is unsecured, and about half of it is secured against residential property. The security question is not a detail of your deal. It is your deal — and it is the one thing almost nobody is working on for you.
Source: Reserve Bank of Australia data on small business credit.
What most people do
Four ways to close the gap. All four leave the same thing untouched.
Hover, tap or tab to any input to see what it means.
Go to your own bank
They know you, they are quick, and they will say yes inside their own box. One policy, one view of your security, one answer. If it is no, you have learned nothing you can act on.
Use a broker who shops it around
More lenders see it. But the same file goes to all of them — so it is the same questions and the same answer, four more times.
Find the cash yourself
A bigger deposit, family money, sell an asset. It works, and it is the most expensive capital you will ever use.
Wait, or buy something smaller
The only option nobody calls a decision. It is usually the one people take.
Every one of those changes who reads your file.
None of them changes the file.
Before you talk to anyone
Agree on what a real answer has to do.
Change what the lender sees
The structure and the security — not just the letterhead on the application.
Look at everything you hold, at once
This deal should not be structured in isolation from the facilities you are already carrying.
Tell you the truth before you spend money
Including whether the thing you are buying is worth what they are asking.
Put its own money behind the answer
Anyone will promise you an outcome. Fewer will refund one.
A broker who cannot do all four is an interest-rate comparison with a phone number.
What we actually are
Not an interest-rate broker. A structuring firm.
A comparison site is the right tool when your position is simple. When it is not, the rate was never the problem — and matching it harder will not fix it.
If we don’t secure the offer set out in your Action Plan, your fee is refunded in full.
Your Action Plan is written and handed to you at the meeting. It names the structure, the lender class, the terms we are working to and the timeframe. If we don’t get you there, you don’t pay us.
If you decide not to proceed, or your circumstances change materially, we hold your fee as credit for twelve months. Full terms are set out in your Action Plan before you accept it.
Pillar one · The work
No interest rates on this site.
Every lender moves one lever. We move seven — and then an eighth nobody else touches.
Structure
Which entity holds it, how the security sits, and what that does to your capacity three purchases from now. Modelled internally before we approach a single lender.
“Understands structuring funding of a corporate entity like no one else does.”
Ghanshyam Chavda · Unit trust purchaseLVR
The published number is an opening position, not a limit. Up to 100% on business and commercial transactions with no additional security. 90% with no LMI where a professional policy applies. Subject to lender criteria, security position and eligibility.
“Because my wife works as a nurse, they were able to tap into a specialized nursing policy that secured us an incredible 90% loan-to-value ratio with zero Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI).”
Jay Patel · Owner-occupied purchaseServiceability
The add-backs an assessor will actually allow, and the income story the policy can see. One year of financials instead of two, where the exception is winnable.
“They went way beyond what a standard finance broker would do, managing to secure a massive exception with NAB to approve us on just a single year of business financials.”
Saurabh Patel · Business ownerValuation
Most brokers accept the number and pass it on. We arrange an independent valuation and challenge the lender.
“Our land came back about $26,000 short across three separate lender valuers, which threatened the whole loan. Most brokers would have accepted it. Priyank didn’t.”
Ami Gandhi · Land and buildSpeed
A file that answers the credit committee’s questions before they are asked does not go back and forth.
“From application to unconditional approval in under 48 hours.”
Hansa Bhatol · RefinanceFees
The interest rate is one line in the cost of funds. Application fees, establishment fees, valuation fees, legal fees, exit and break costs are the others — and every one of them is negotiable when someone who has sat on the lender’s side does the negotiating. We work the whole stack down, because what you actually pay is the total, not the headline.
Tax efficiency
Structured with your accountant in the room, before lodgement — not explained to them after settlement.
“He prepared a colour-coded scenario spreadsheet modelling our purchase prices across three family contribution structures, so we could see exactly what we could afford each month.”
Vishal Makadia · Health professional, corporate entitySame borrowing, same dollars. The only difference is which entity signs, and in what order — decided before lodgement, not discovered at tax time.
Then one more, which isn’t a lending lever at all.
Most brokers start work once you have agreed what you are paying. We would rather start before.
“He took it directly to the developer and their lawyers and negotiated $12,350 off our land contract price.”
Kalpesh GandhiLand and build“They also helped me to renegotiate the price of the house and saved $10,000.”
Hunaid UdaipurwalaOwner-occupied purchase“He personally led the negotiation with the selling agent, securing the property well below the advertised price range through a methodical, evidence-based approach.”
Hansa BhatolInvestorThe interest rate is the only lever most people are ever shown. It is also the one that moves least. Subject to lender criteria, security position and eligibility.
Pillar two · The whole position
The deal in front of you is not the only thing on the table.
Most people bring us one transaction. We look at everything you hold, because the facility written in 2019 is usually the reason the one you want now is difficult.
“I’d been to several lenders and brokers before this, and none of them could get me to a loan amount that equated to buying a house… I’m a senior analyst at a Big Four firm. I work with numbers every day and I still couldn’t see the structure that made it work.”
Vipul ChanderSenior analyst, Big Four firm“Rather than looking at my purchase in isolation, he took our entire family property portfolio and restructured it: repositioning the debt across the holdings, releasing equity that was sitting idle, and refinancing onto sharper rates as part of the same exercise. My parents finished better off than they started.”
Vipul ChanderUnconditional approval in 48 hoursPortfolio restructuring applies to established multi-property positions. It is not a guarantor arrangement and it is not a route into a first purchase.
Pillar three · The truth first
Before we fund it, we check it’s worth funding.
Forensic due diligence. We go through what you are buying the way a lender never will — because a lender only asks whether the debt can be repaid, not whether the business should be bought. It runs on three things most brokers do not have.
Industry benchmarks
We draw on an Australian IBISWorld subscription, ABS statistics and AIBB BizStats transaction records — the research banks, valuers and accountants rely on. Before you commit, we test the vendor’s numbers against how that industry actually performs: real margins, real outlook, and the pressures a seller has no reason to raise.
An owner’s read of the books
Priyank bought a hospitality business — the thinnest margins and the worst survival odds in the country — rebuilt it to profit in eighteen months, and sold it for two and a half times what he paid. He does not read a P&L hopefully.
A credit assessor’s read of the risk
Years assessing files at Bank of Melbourne and La Trobe Financial on portfolios above $5 million. The questions a credit committee would ask, asked while you can still act on the answers.
A client came to us to fund a business advertised at $1.2 million. The documents and questions we required surfaced information the buyer did not have. We assisted to negotiate the same business for $650,000.
That is $550,000, found before settlement, by asking questions.
Shared with the client’s consent. Outcomes depend on the individual transaction and what the documents disclose.
And the same work strengthens your application. Independent industry data in the credit submission answers the assessor’s first question before it is asked: is this sector one we want exposure to?
Why Prevail
Four chairs. Most brokers have sat in one.
Banker
Years inside the banks assessing other people’s files — Senior Credit Advisor, then Lending Manager at Bank of Melbourne with a delegated lending authority, then Commercial Credit Analyst at La Trobe Financial on portfolios above $5 million.
Your file arrives having already answered the three questions the committee was going to ask. You don’t win an exception by asking for one. You win it by removing every reason to say no first.
“At the critical point before settlement, he secured a policy exception from the lender that I’m told is granted only in the rarest of cases.”
Yash Luthra · Buyer’s advocateOperator
He bought a hospitality business — the category with the thinnest margins and the worst survival odds in the country — rebuilt it to profit inside eighteen months, and sold it for two and a half times what he paid. He has founded and run businesses in three other industries since 2016, all of them alongside Prevail.
When you bring him a business you are about to buy, he is not reading those financials as a lender. He is reading them as someone who has had to make a set of numbers like that work on a Tuesday morning. That is what the due diligence is built on, and it is why it finds what it finds.
“He also helped me secure a business loan to purchase a new business.”
Mukesh Sharma · Business owner & seasoned property investorDeveloper
Ten-plus completed projects of his own — townhouses, subdivisions, rooming houses, co-living. He is still building. He is still borrowing to do it.
He can tell you the feasibility is wrong before a lender does, and tell you what a site is worth after you own it — not just what it costs today.
“Then he walked the block with me. Pointed out four different ways to add real value… He ran the financial feasibility on every one. Even with my construction background, two of those four hadn’t crossed my mind.”
Sachin Patel · TradesmanBorrower
A valuation on one of his own projects came back short. The options he was handed were the ones every borrower gets: find the difference in cash, renegotiate the price, or walk away. He did none of them. He restructured the deal and put a case to the lender for an exception above their standard LVR. They granted it. That was the first exception he ever won, on his own file, with his own money at risk.
When your valuation comes back light, you won’t hear “that’s the market” from us. You’ll get the question he had to ask himself that week — not is this deal dead, but what would have to be true for it to work.
“He proactively arranged an independent valuation from a top-tier firm, which confirmed the contract price, then challenged the lender until they corrected their figure and approved the loan we needed.”
Ami Gandhi · Land and buildYour file gets all four.
Years in lending, unbroken since 2014
Of the credit desk
Developments completed, his own
Business bought, rebuilt, sold
Lenders on panel
Private funds & JV partners
Established
Five-star Google reviews
The founder
Priyank Thakkar.
Since 2014 he has not spent a single year outside finance and lending — broker, Senior Credit Advisor, Bank Lending Manager, Commercial Credit Analyst, and back to broking. Different chairs, one industry, twelve unbroken years. Everything else was built beside it.
& Priyank
Thakkar
Lead with Empathy
Co-author, Lead with Empathy — with Chris Voss
Priyank joined former FBI lead international hostage negotiator Chris Voss — author of Never Split the Difference — and professionals from around the world as a co-author of Lead with Empathy. His chapter is The Currency of Empathy.
Empathy is not softness. It is accuracy: telling someone the truth in a way that preserves their dignity. It is the discipline this firm runs on — listen first, then structure.
Rather than looking at my purchase in isolation, he took our entire family property portfolio and restructured it… My parents finished better off than they started.Vipul ChanderFamily portfolio restructure · unconditional in 48 hours
How it works
Six steps. You pay at step five.
A seven-minute call with Priyank
What you are trying to do, and what is in the way. No documents.
We send your credit guide and document list
We will need your numbers before we sit down. Nobody can give you a real answer without them.
We build your financial position
Our team compiles and verifies everything and produces a written snapshot and scenario model of where you actually stand. This is unpaid work, and it happens before you have committed to anything.
The meeting
Thirty minutes with Priyank, your position read the way a credit committee will read it. You will know whether we can fund it.
Your Action Plan, in writing
The structure, the lender class, the terms we are working to and the timeframe — with a fixed fee quoted before you decide.
We engineer the file, run the lenders, and manage it to settlement
You are updated weekly at minimum, whether or not there is news.
If we can’t help, you still leave with a plan. What has to change, and over what period — usually one to six months — so that when you come back, we can.
Steps one to four cost nothing, whichever way the answer goes.
Capability
How far the right structure goes.
What the market treats as the limit, and where the structure actually reaches.
Commercial purchase
A 25–35% deposit, or your home pledged as extra security
Up to 100% — no additional securityDeal and policy dependent. Includes professional policies for practice premises.
Business & start-up funding
Two years of financials, or no conversation
Up to 100%Case by case — structure and security dependent.
Development funding
Presales before funding
No presales (buyers signed up before construction starts)Case-by-case at major banks for the right sponsor; non-bank and private credit where speed or leverage matters.
Development cost
Bank pathways sit lower
Up to 80% LVR of total development costThrough non-bank pathways.
Rooming houses
Most lenders won’t touch them
Up to 80% LVRSubject to lender appetite and valuation basis. Metro and regional, Australia wide.
SMSF commercial
A shrinking lender pool
Up to 80% LVRAgainst business real property, subject to fund liquidity.
Debt restructuring
Set-and-forget facilities
Whole-position restructureSMSF, commercial and business debt repositioned to free cashflow and cut interest cost.
Asset & vehicle finance
Two years of trading history first
From 12 months of ABNEquipment, business vehicles and asset finance.
Private capital & JV
The bank says no, the deal dies
Private funding and JV pathwaysFor deals banks can’t hold.
Beyond finance: the right people, introduced.
Deals succeed on teams. Accountants, lawyers, town planners, builders, buyer’s advocates — we introduce you to specialists we already trust. Before Prevail, Priyank ran Mandav Studio for four years, an architectural visualisation practice whose clients were developers, architects, builders and agents across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. That is the network, and it is also the guest list for Seekers+.
If your deal does not fit a row above, that is usually where we start. All outcomes subject to lender criteria, security position and eligibility.
What we do
Eight disciplines. One standard.
Buying something
Buying a business
Acquisition funding where the deposit was set by what a bank can secure, not by what you can afford.
Read more →Buying your business premises
Stop paying rent into someone else’s retirement. Owner-occupier commercial, direct or through your fund.
Read more →SMSF commercial property
Residential inside super has closed. Commercial property remains fully open.
Read more →Building something
Development & construction finance
Site to completion, including without presales. Bank, non-bank and private credit.
Read more →Rooming house & co-living finance
Funded by a broker who has built them, licensed them and lived the land tax question.
Read more →Property development consultancy
Feasibility, structure and capital strategy from ten-plus completed projects. A paid engagement.
Read more →Fixing something
Straight answers
Fair questions.
What does Prevail Finance actually do?
We arrange business, commercial, SMSF, development and rooming house finance for Australian business owners, buyers and investors — and we restructure debt people already hold. We are a structuring firm rather than a rate broker: the work is changing what a lender sees, not just changing which lender sees it. Priyank Thakkar assessed and approved lending inside the banks before he arranged it, and develops property on his own account.
Do you charge a fee?
Yes, on the work we take on, and we publish what it costs. Everything up to and including your Action Plan meeting is free — the seven-minute call, the document review, the financial position we build for you, and the thirty minutes with Priyank. The fee is quoted in writing before you decide. See what it costs.
What is the guarantee?
If we don’t secure the offer set out in your written Action Plan, your fee is refunded in full. The Action Plan names the structure, the lender class, the terms we are working to and the timeframe, so the guarantee is testable rather than a slogan. If you decide not to proceed or your circumstances change materially, we hold the fee as credit for twelve months.
Will talking to you affect my credit file or my chances with a lender?
No. We don’t lodge anything, and no lender sees your file until you decide to proceed — and we will ask you first.
Do you do standard home loans?
Complexity, not size, is the test. Home lending for our clients generally rides along with entity, portfolio or business work. A straightforward salaried home loan at the sharpest advertised rate is a real service — it just isn’t ours, and we will point you somewhere good.
I’ve already been declined. Is it worth talking?
A decline is information, not a verdict. Most declined files were badly presented rather than bad. We read the decline the way the committee did, then rebuild the file around the strongest true version of your position.
Where do you operate?
Melbourne based, working Australia wide. We have particular depth in Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide and Tasmania. Rooming house and co-living work is Victoria only, because the licensing and land tax rules that make those projects work are Victorian instruments.
How fast can you move?
Speed follows the file. Files we have engineered have reached unconditional approval in 36 and 48 hours, both from published client reviews. Enquiries get a response within four business hours.
Why through Prevail
The parts you don’t have to take on faith.
Nothing reaches a lender until you approve it in writing.
Unconditional approvals in as little as 48 hours — client-reported.
Fee refunded in full if the Action Plan offer isn’t secured.
Australian Credit Licence 509527 — held directly, not leased.
Next step
The next lender will read your file in minutes. Have it read properly first.
Seven minutes on the phone to start. Nothing lodged, nothing on your credit file.
30 minutes with Priyank. No application, and no lender sees anything until you say so. You’ll know whether we can fund it — and either way, you leave with a plan.
ACLACL 509527Held directly, not leasedMemberships verifiable with each body