Guide
Lease Doc Commercial Loans
When the property's lease can service the debt, your tax returns can stay in the drawer. The published ceilings are the same as full doc. What moves is pricing and loan size, and knowing which lender reads your lease best.
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Quick facts: lease doc lending (checked 14 August 2026)
| What qualifies the loan | The lease income of the property, not full borrower financials |
| Published LVR ceilings | La Trobe 75%, identical to its full doc; Liberty up to 80% on lease income (effective 13 Aug 2026) |
| La Trobe size tiers | 75% to $3m, 70% to $25m, 65% to $50m, terms up to 30 years |
| What doc type moves | Pricing and loan size, more than the ceiling |
| Servicing test | Interest cover from rent, at the lender's buffered rate |
| Lease doc vs low doc | Lease doc assesses the lease; low doc assesses the borrower on alternative evidence |
A lease doc commercial loan is assessed on the lease income of the property instead of full financial statements for the borrower: if the rent services the debt, the deal can proceed without tax returns. On published policy the LVR ceiling is the same as full doc, with La Trobe at an identical 75% for both and Liberty up to 80% on lease income (checked 14 August 2026). What documentation type actually moves is pricing and loan size, which makes lender selection the decision that matters.
Who lease doc is actually for
The borrowers who need this product are rarely weak borrowers. They are borrowers whose paperwork understates them. An investor with several entities and lumpy distributions whose latest return says little about capacity. A trust or company holding its first property, with no trading history for a full doc assessment to read. A business owner whose most recent financial year carried one-off costs that make the accounts look worse than the business. In each case the property is sound, the lease is real, and the rent covers the debt. Lease doc lets the lease make that argument directly.
It is also the natural product on the buy side of leaseback transactions: an investor purchasing a property with a long lease already in place is buying exactly the income stream a lease doc assessment wants to see. If you are on the other side of that trade, selling your premises and staying on as tenant, our guide to a sale and leaseback of business premises covers how the lease you sign sets the price you get.
What the lender reads in the lease
With the financials stepped back, the lease carries the file. Remaining term does most of the work, because a strong lease with two years left on it is a weak proposition against a loan that runs far longer, so what counts is the term remaining rather than the term originally signed. Tenant covenant comes next, since a national brand and a startup on its first site pay identical rent on paper and nothing like it in a credit assessment. The rent has to be at market and at arm's length, because the assessment capitalises it and an inflated figure inflates everything downstream. A net lease where the tenant carries the outgoings supports more debt than a gross rent the owner pays costs out of.
The servicing test is usually interest cover from the rent, run at the lender's buffered assessment rate rather than the rate you pay. How that test works, and how it differs from the DSCR applied to trading businesses, is covered in our guide to commercial loan DSCR. To see the buffered repayment on your own numbers first, the commercial property loan calculator shows it alongside the deposit and WA duty.
Lease doc, low doc, full doc: pick by the obstacle
The right documentation route depends on what is actually in the way. If the property's lease can carry the loan, lease doc uses it. If the borrower's income is real but the evidence is unconventional, low doc replaces tax returns with an accountant declaration, BAS or bank statements. If the financials are current, clean and strong, full doc is usually the cheapest money available and there is no reason to avoid it. The mistake we see is borrowers assuming their situation dictates one route when two or three are open, and taking the first quote inside that assumption. Which lender, on which documentation basis, is a comparison worth running before the application, not after a decline.
Where the tenant is your own business, the related-party rules tighten: market rent, a proper lease, and genuine payment are non-negotiable, and the super version of the structure has its own requirements, covered in SMSF commercial property loans. For the broader borrowing picture around premises and commercial property, start with commercial property finance.
Why businesses put us in the deal
Bankers first, brokers second. Rockwall was founded by two former commercial bankers, and years of working with bank credit teams taught us how they assess a deal. We structure yours the way the person approving it will read it.
Access to more than 40 lenders. Through our Finsure accreditation we can take your deal to the major banks and to the non-bank and specialist lenders behind them, and we know which credit teams currently have appetite for deals like yours.
Licensed and accountable. We are MFAA members and Credit Representatives (579184, 579182 and 580433) of Finsure Finance & Insurance Pty Ltd.
Frequently asked questions
What is a lease doc commercial loan?
A lease doc commercial loan is assessed on the rental income of the property being financed, evidenced by the lease, instead of on full financial statements for the borrower. If the rent covers the loan servicing test, the deal can proceed without tax returns and detailed financials. It exists because plenty of sound borrowers have paperwork that understates them: an investor whose income is lumpy, a structure with limited trading history, or accounts where the most recent year does not reflect the current position. The property and its lease carry the assessment instead.
What LVR can I get on a lease doc loan?
On published policy, the same ceiling as full doc. La Trobe Financial publishes a maximum 75% LVR for both its full doc and lease doc commercial lending, tiered by loan size (75% to $3 million, 70% to $25 million, 65% to $50 million), on terms up to 30 years (latrobefinancial.com.au, checked 14 August 2026). Liberty publishes up to 80% where the loan is serviced by lease income (liberty.com.au, effective 13 August 2026). The documentation type moves the pricing and the loan size more than it moves the ceiling, so choosing lease doc is not automatically choosing a smaller loan.
What is the difference between lease doc and low doc?
Lease doc qualifies the loan on the property: the lease income services the debt, and the borrower financials largely step back. Low doc qualifies the loan on alternative evidence of the borrower income, such as an accountant declaration, BAS statements or business bank statements, instead of full financials. Lease doc suits tenanted investment property where the rent does the work. Low doc suits owner-occupiers and trading businesses whose income is real but whose paperwork lags it. They are often confused because both step around full financials, but the thing being assessed is different: the lease in one, the borrower in the other.
What does the lender check on the lease?
Four things decide most lease doc assessments. The first is how much term is left on the lease, because a lease that expires before or shortly into the loan leaves the lender exposed, which makes the remaining term more important than the term originally signed. The second is the tenant covenant, since a national brand reads differently to a startup on its first site. The third is the rent, which has to be at market and at arm's length, because an inflated rent inflates the whole assessment. The fourth is the lease structure, where a net lease with the tenant carrying the outgoings supports more debt than a gross rent that the owner pays costs out of. The servicing test itself is usually run on interest cover from the rent, at the lender buffered rate rather than the rate you pay.
Can I use a lease doc loan if the tenant is my own business?
Some lenders will consider it, and the arrangement gets more scrutiny than an arm's length lease. The rent must be at market, documented in a proper lease, and genuinely paid, because a related-party rent set for the loan rather than the market is exactly what the assessment is designed to catch. This structure comes up most often where the premises are held in a separate entity or in super and leased to the trading business: the super version has its own rules, covered in our guide to SMSF commercial property loans, where the market-rent and arm's-length requirements are conditions of the whole strategy, not just the loan.
Is a lease doc loan more expensive than full doc?
The published ceilings say the LVR is not where you pay for it: La Trobe publishes an identical 75% maximum for full doc and lease doc (checked 14 August 2026). Documentation type shows up in pricing and loan size instead, which means the practical question is whether the pricing difference costs less than the delay, the declined application, or the missed purchase that insisting on full doc would have produced. For a borrower whose financials genuinely support full doc, full doc is usually the cheaper path. Lease doc earns its place when the paperwork, not the position, is the obstacle.
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