We build the capital behind Canberra.
A boutique commercial finance brokerage for the deals that need real expertise — and a quiet partner to the accountants, real estate professionals and financial advisers whose clients need finance they don't write.
A small team, doing serious work. On purpose.
We handle the deals that need real expertise — development finance, commercial property, business acquisition, complex debt — for operators across the ACT and regional NSW. Small client list. Deep lender relationships. Based in Canberra, connected nationally.
The person behind the file.
- Graduate Diploma, Financial Planning — Kaplan
- Certified Fund Manager (API)
- Finance Broker
- Member, Australian Property Institute
- Justice of the Peace
George is a debt advisor — not a transactional broker. He founded Black Mountain Financial to do commercial finance the way the deals actually need it — modelled, structured and built around the client, not an off-the-shelf product.
Twenty years inside major banks and payments platforms — Westpac, CBA, Citi and fintech product roles — across SME, commercial and property-development lending. The analysis he used to run inside the banks is now done before the application, not after the decline.
The last eight years — in business-focused product, data & analytics, and finance — compounded into the platform he stands on today: the benchmarking and risk engine behind every BMF submission, and the open analysis he publishes on how lenders actually assess deals.
For accountants, planners and solicitors: the files that don't fit a calculator are exactly the ones to send across.
The finance your clients' banks call "too hard."
Development finance
Construction, land, residual stock and mezzanine — ACT and regional NSW, including past the majors' caps.
Commercial property
Purchase, refinance and equity release — office, industrial, retail, mixed-use, owner-occupier and investment.
Business finance
Acquisition funding, working capital, equipment and trade — structured on the business, not just the security.
Specialised securities
Going concerns, rent rolls, practice goodwill — assets generalist credit teams struggle to value.
SMSF lending
Commercial and residential property inside super, arranged and kept compliant.
Complex & private
Cross-secured structures, restructures, and private credit when timing matters more than price.
Built around the advisers your clients already trust.
Your clients ask you about finance because they trust you with everything else. We're the specialist you hand that question to — and we hand the client straight back.
You know the numbers
Premises purchases, acquisitions, restructures — we arrange the facility, report back to you, and never cut you out.
You know the assets
Commercial sales, rent roll growth, agency acquisition — finance that keeps your transactions moving and your vendors settled.
You set the course
Gearing, SMSF, debt structure — we service the engine so the lending fits the strategy you designed. We never give financial advice.
You introduce. We do the heavy lifting. You stay the adviser.
- You introduce — a short email or call. That's the whole ask of you.
- We scope the deal — what's fundable, how to structure it. No cost, no obligation; if it can't be done well, we say so early.
- We arrange and manage the facility — lender selection, submission, conditions, valuation, settlement.
- We report back to you — plain-English updates at the points that matter. The relationship stays yours.
- The client stays your client — we arrange the finance they came for, nothing else gets pitched, and we never go around you.
Structured on the business — not just the balance sheet.
A lender isn't funding the national mood — they're funding the order book, the trading history and the cash flow cover. Our job is matching the business in front of us to the lender whose credit appetite actually fits it.
- Buy the premises — owner-occupier commercial finance for the business sick of paying rent.
- Buy the business — acquisitions and partner buyouts funded on cashflow and goodwill, not just bricks and mortar.
- Fund the growth — working capital, equipment and trade facilities sized to where the business is going.
- Fix the structure — untangle cross-secured facilities into something the business (and its accountant) can work with.
The assets a branch credit desk can't value.
Some of the best security isn't a standard freehold. It's a trading hotel, a rent roll, a practice's goodwill — assets that need a lender who understands the income, not just the title. We know which ones do.
Hotels, pubs & accommodation
Trading hospitality assets valued and funded as businesses — acquisition, refinance and consolidation.
The agency's real asset
Rent roll acquisition and growth funding — security generalist banks routinely under-lend against.
Practices & firms
Professional practices bought and funded on maintainable earnings — where the value isn't on the title at all.
Finance for firms like yours.
Accounting practices, real estate agencies, advice firms, medical and allied health — businesses whose value sits in fees, files and relationships. We fund the moves that matter:
- Practice & agency acquisition — buy the book, the practice or the competitor, funded on maintainable earnings.
- Succession & partner buy-ins — fund the next generation in without bleeding the firm's working capital.
- Premises — own the office your firm operates from, including through SMSF where it fits.
- Growth capital — rent roll expansion, lateral hires, technology — sized to recurring revenue.
Secured or unsecured — priced to the deal.
Unsecured term lending
Long-tenor unsecured funding over 10–15 year terms — growth and working capital without tying up property.
Unsecured overdrafts
A revolving line for cashflow timing and short-term need — drawn as required, no security taken.
Secured facilities
Residential and commercial-backed term debt and lines — the sharpest pricing on the panel.
Indicative only — actual rate, term and structure depend on the deal, the security and the lender. Not an offer of credit.
Every deal benchmarked before a lender sees it.
We don't send a lender raw financials. Our engine benchmarks the business against its industry, grades the risk, and builds the credit case — so the submission answers the credit team's questions before they're asked.
This is the engine behind the risk reports in the case studies that follow — the difference between a loan application and a credit case.
One read: where the business sits — and what it risks.
Client financials, normalised and compared to the industry benchmark — then graded for risk and ESG. The internal assessment behind every submission.
- Margin 7.1 pts below sector
- Wages 7.7 pts above sector
- Liquidity below sector average
- Rising regulatory exposure (governance)
- Opportunity: energy-efficiency funding
- Client-level ESG inputs — in build
Illustrative output, anonymised. Internal assessment — indicative only; not credit advice and not a guarantee of approval. Benchmarks sourced from IBISWorld industry data.
What this looks like in practice.
Priced for risk the deal didn't have.
A hospitality investor's bank was pricing a $20M+ facility as a risky exposure. Our risk report re-presented it as the asset-backed lend it actually is.
- 1.8% line fee
- Priced as a risky exposure
- $20M+ facility, no asset-backed case
- 0.15% line fee + 1.0% drawn margin
- Asset-backed at 60% LVR, 40% equity buffer
- Independent valuations · earnings normalised
- Covenant package + capex reserve
Restructure fees were significantly waived — and we waived our upfront commission to get it done: a 0.50% changeover cost that pays for itself inside four months. We kept the trail, so we keep managing the facility and the lender relationship for the client.
Savings estimated on the line-fee differential across the facility limit · outcomes vary by deal
Same lender. Sharper price.
An $11M facility across residential and commercial security, 100% commercial use. Re-presented on its merits and re-priced with the existing lender retained — in 72 hours.
- BBSY + 1.50% all-in
- 1.00% drawn margin
- 0.50% line fee
- BBSY + 1.10% all-in
- 0.70% drawn margin
- 0.40% line fee
No refinance and no new security — the same lender repriced the facility once it was re-presented properly. We kept the trail, so we keep managing it for the client.
Reduction shown on the all-in rate over BBSY · outcomes vary by deal
Details anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Every deal is assessed on its own merits — no outcome is guaranteed.
Small-scale infill — funded by a major bank.
A three-townhouse infill development in inner-south Canberra — usually a job for second-tier or private credit. Structured properly, it went to a major bank's commercial division, at major-bank pricing.
- Site3 contiguous lots, acquired 2024 for $1.62M — funded 100% by developer cash equity
- SchemeConstruction of 3 residential townhouses
- LenderMajor bank · commercial division
- FacilitySenior development finance — construction plus partial land equity cash-out
- SecurityFirst-ranking mortgage over all three lots + director guarantees
- 100% cash equity in the land — de-risked the funding structure from day one.
- Related-party builder, controlled — engaged under a fixed-price contract with standard QS and progress-draw controls.
- Equity release sized to the constraint — kept within the ≤75% TDC peak-debt limit, not a standalone cash-out.
- Clean single-asset SPV — sole director / beneficial owner; director and spouse guarantors with a statement of position.
Anonymised — indicative only; every deal assessed on its own merits, no outcome guaranteed.
We're here to grow your practice — not just fund your clients.
The partnership runs deeper than a referral. The data, automation and reporting we built to sharpen our own deals — we'll share what we've built and what we've learned, where it helps you.
More solutions for your clients
Answer the finance question your clients bring you — without the licence, the risk or the work. You look good; they stay yours.
Key data to back your advice
The same industry benchmarking and market data we run on deals — shared to support your own client conversations and growth calls.
Automation & report building
We've built our own data, automation and reporting in-house. We're happy to share the blueprints and lessons that could help your practice, partner to partner.
Shared in good faith to support the relationship — not a paid engagement or a commitment to build your systems.
Let's find 20 minutes.
No pitch deck, no obligation. Send your details and the days you're free to meet in person — I'll come back with a time. If we can't help, I'll tell you who can.