Can You Finance Used Equipment?

Yes — most equipment finance written in Australia is on used assets. What changes is the term, the valuation, and how much verification the lender does before settlement.

Yes. A large share of the equipment finance written in Australia every year is on used assets. What changes is not whether a facility is available but how it is shaped, and how much verification sits between approval and settlement.

Finance on this site is arranged by Overdrive Commercial Funding, an authorised credit representative of Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 389328. Any facility is subject to eligibility criteria, the individual lender’s criteria and credit assessment.

The age cap is at the end of the term, not the start

This is the thing that catches buyers out. A lender is not deciding whether it is comfortable with a 13-year-old truck today. It is deciding whether it is comfortable holding that truck as security when it is 18 or 20, because that is when the facility ends.

End-of-term caps for trucks and heavy machinery commonly fall between 15 and 20 years and differ by lender, with banks usually tighter than specialist non-bank lenders. So age does not stop you borrowing — it shortens the term you can borrow over.

These are general patterns, not rules — every lender sets its own cap. Check the term before you commit to a machine, because a short term on a large amount is a large monthly payment, and that is where an otherwise sensible purchase stops working.

Valuation, and lending against value rather than price

On a used asset the lender lends against value, and where the price is above assessed value it generally funds the lower figure. The difference becomes your deposit, whether you planned for one or not.

For registrable vehicles that assessment often comes from an industry valuation guide adjusted for kilometres, condition and specification. For machinery it more often involves an inspection or a desktop valuation, particularly where hours are high. Attachments, tipping bodies and cranes are valued as part of the asset, so have them listed on the invoice rather than mentioned in conversation.

Private sales carry more verification

When the seller is a business with a tax invoice, the lender has a counterparty it can check. When the seller is private, the lender builds that comfort itself: confirm the seller owns the asset, confirm the bank account belongs to them, search the PPSR, and pay out any existing finance directly at settlement rather than trusting it is handled afterwards.

A private seller who is not registered for GST does not charge GST, so there is no input tax credit on the purchase. That is a real difference in your first-quarter cash position compared with a dealer purchase, and the effect is a question for your accountant.

PPSR, and why you search before you pay

A security interest attaches to the asset, not to the person who owed the money. If a previous owner financed the truck and never paid the facility out, the registration can still be sitting there when you buy it, and the financier can have a claim against a machine in your yard.

Search the PPSR yourself against the VIN, chassis or serial number before any money moves, and keep the certificate. Searching correctly by serial number, at the time of purchase, is what gives a buyer of a motor vehicle the protection the legislation offers against an undisclosed interest. A search against the seller’s name alone does not do the same job.

A registration showing up is not necessarily the end of the deal. It usually means the payout figure has to be obtained and settled as part of settlement, which lenders do routinely — as long as they know before documents are drawn.

Why an odd asset narrows the panel

Some used assets are easy to fund because a lender can picture selling them. Others are not, and it has little to do with condition.

• Mainstream makes with volume in Australia are easiest, because there is an observable resale market.
• Specialised assets, one-off configurations and purpose-built bodies narrow the buyer pool, which lenders read as resale risk.
• Very old assets, or those past ready parts and service support, get fewer lenders looking.
• Imports with no local support network can be harder again, even where the machine is sound.
• Assets in high-wear applications are assessed more conservatively than hours alone suggest.

A narrower panel does not mean no finance. It means fewer options, and terms that reflect that.

Auctions need the finance sorted first

Auction stock is sold as-is with settlement due within a day or two. That timetable does not fit an application started after the hammer falls, so get an indicative limit in place first and bid to it.

Two things buyers miss. The buyer’s premium and fees are generally not funded, so budget for them in cash. And the auction invoice needs to carry the serial or VIN and match the application, or settlement waits while it is corrected.

Imports and compliance

A road vehicle imported into Australia has to be approved for use here before it can be registered, and a lender will want that position resolved rather than pending. Machinery that never touches a public road avoids the registration question but still needs identifiable serial numbers, because that is what the security interest attaches to.

A machine with no legible serial plate is a problem for reasons unrelated to how it works. If you cannot identify it, a lender cannot secure it.

What makes a used asset easy or hard to fund

• Easy: mainstream make and model, clear serial or VIN, dealer invoice, service history, hours consistent with the year, price at or below valuation, and enough life left that the term you want finishes inside the age cap.
• Hard: no documentation, unclear ownership, an unregistered import, a specialised configuration with no resale market, a price above valuation, or an age that leaves only a short term.

None of that is a verdict on a particular machine. It is the checklist a lender runs, and knowing it before you make an offer is how you avoid finding out at the wrong end of the process. Our finance calculator shows what a shorter term does to a repayment, which is usually the real question on an older asset.