Finance for Medical Professionals - Rates from 6.59%

Specialist medico lenders treat registered health practitioners as lower-risk borrowers, and it shows in what they publicly offer. Some advertise up to 100% of the purchase price of an existing practice or partnership share, secured against the practice's goodwill and equipment rather than your home, with terms as long as 15 years and interest-only periods of up to five years with some lenders, subject to credit approval. Emu Money's standard business loans, by comparison, run from 3 months to 5 years, and most lenders on the panel finance 50 to 70% of a business purchase.

The difference comes down to documentation. A registered practitioner's income is visible to a lender through registration, billing records and practice financials, whether that revenue is Medicare rebates and patient fees for a GP, health-fund rebates and patient fees for a dentist, or fees from pet owners for a vet. That documented revenue base is what the specialist terms are priced on.

Medico terms are not automatic, though. Lenders apply their own credit criteria, and on a practice purchase the widest terms go to practitioners with current registration, a clean trading history and a practice with two or three years of financials behind it. Comparing 50+ lenders in one application shows you what the mainstream market offers your profession; the specialist terms above are the benchmark to hold any offer against, subject to lender approval.

You can borrow $2,000 to $2,000,000 through Emu Money to buy an existing practice or partnership share, set up a new one or add a second site, at rates from 7.59% over 3 months to 5 years. The loan can be secured against the practice's assets, taken unsecured for smaller amounts or, with some specialist medico lenders, secured against the practice's goodwill.

Goodwill is what you pay for a practice beyond its equipment and fit-out: the patient list, the location, the brand and the billings. Specialist lenders that lend against goodwill look for the practice's financial statements (two to three years is preferred), your personal financials and the purchase contract, and some require life and income protection cover for the goodwill-secured balance.

A start-up practice has no financials to show, so expect a lender to assess you as the practitioner rather than the business, and to want a business plan with projected billings and a fit-out budget. Some specialist medico lenders publicly offer practice build loans of up to 100% for property, construction and fit-out, subject to credit approval. The practice loans page covers practice purchase, start-up finance, working capital and consolidation in detail, and explains how goodwill lending works.

Equipment finance through Emu Money covers $5,000 to $2,000,000 at rates from 6.59% over 1 to 7 years: ultrasound, X-ray and CT systems, dental chairs and CBCT units, sterilisers, surgical tables and IT. The medical equipment finance page covers imaging and dental equipment specifically.

Two structures do most of the work. A chattel mortgage gives your practice ownership from day one, so you claim depreciation and the interest, and a GST-registered practice can generally claim the GST on the purchase price in its next BAS. A lease keeps ownership with the lender and ends with a residual that should match the equipment's value at that point.

Fit-outs are financed differently from a single machine. Some specialist medico lenders publicly offer draw-down facilities that pay builders and suppliers in stages as the work progresses, with the option of no repayments during the drawdown stage and terms up to 10 years, subject to credit approval. Through Emu Money, a fit-out is financed within the equipment finance limits above over terms to 7 years, and items that become fixtures may need additional security; the fit-out finance page sets out what can be included.

Timing matters for tax. Small businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million can deduct the full cost of eligible assets under $20,000 each in the year they are first used, and from 1 July 2026 the $20,000 limit is permanent and now law.

A $19,000 steriliser qualifies; a $180,000 CT unit is depreciated instead. Check the position with your accountant before you order.

Business car loans through Emu Money run from $10,000 to $500,000+ at rates from 6.59% over 1 to 7 years, and they suit any practitioner buying a vehicle on an ABN: a practice car, a practice partner's car or a vet's field vehicle. Salaried hospital doctors and registrars without an ABN compare personal car loans from 5.67% instead.

The structure decides the tax outcome. A chattel mortgage on a practice vehicle puts the car on the practice's books, with the business-use share of interest and depreciation deductible and the GST on the purchase price generally claimable in the next BAS, subject to the car limit; check the treatment with your accountant. A novated lease is salary-packaged through an employer, so it applies to practitioners paid as employees rather than through their own practice.

Other practice assets follow the same rules. Anything from a portable ultrasound unit to a practice van bought through the business uses asset finance from $5,000 to $2,000,000 at rates from 6.59%, while a purely personal purchase belongs on a personal loan so that private use is kept out of a business facility. The car and asset finance page compares the three structures side by side.

Cash-flow gaps in a practice are often about timing: Medicare rebates, health-fund claims and patient invoices are paid after the consultation, while wages, rent and consumables are due on the day. Emu Money's unsecured business loans cover $5,000 to $500,000 at rates from 9.95% over 3 months to 5 years. A line of credit from 7.99% ($5,000 to $500,000) or a business overdraft from 14.55% ($10,000 to $250,000) lets you draw only what you need, when you need it.

Consolidation works at two levels. At practice level, an equipment lease, a vehicle loan and an overdraft taken out at different times can be refinanced into a single facility with one repayment and sometimes a lower blended rate; whether it saves money depends on the exit costs of the existing contracts. At personal level, credit cards and a personal loan can be combined through a debt consolidation loan, kept separate from the practice's borrowing.

Keep the two apart deliberately. Mixing personal debt into a practice facility muddies the business-use apportionment the ATO requires and makes the practice's own financials harder for the next lender to read. Refinancing practice facilities into one is a standard business loan application; the practice loans page covers it.

Any practitioner with current registration and an ABN can apply, and standard business or asset finance is open on the same terms as for any other business; specialist medico terms depend on the lender and the profession. Australia had 959,858 Ahpra-registered health practitioners at 30 June 2025, up 4.3% in a year: doctors, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, optometrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, nurses and midwives are registered through Ahpra, while veterinarians are registered by their state or territory veterinary board.

For a practice purchase, have ready the practice's financial statements (two to three years is preferred), your personal financials and the purchase contract, plus the premises lease where the practice is a tenant. For equipment or a vehicle, lenders start from a quote or invoice, your ABN and GST registration and recent bank statements, subject to lender approval.

If you bill Medicare, your provider number is part of the picture. Provider and prescriber numbers are required to claim under the MBS and PBS; provider numbers are issued per practice location, and most health professionals receive theirs immediately when applying through HPOS. A new practice needs its provider numbers in place before billings start, so build the application timing around that.

Interest on money borrowed to run or equip a practice is generally deductible, because the ATO lets a business claim most expenses incurred in carrying on that business where they relate to earning assessable income. Where a loan or asset is used partly for private purposes, only the business share is claimable, so a vehicle with private use is claimed on its business share.

The asset itself is claimed separately from the interest. A practice using the ATO's simplified depreciation rules deducts the full cost of eligible assets under $20,000 each in the year they are first used or installed, and pools assets of $20,000 or more at 15% in the first year and 30% after that. Larger practices outside the small business rules depreciate equipment over its effective life instead.

GST works differently again. On a chattel mortgage, a GST-registered practice can generally claim the GST on the equipment's purchase price in its next BAS, while a lease treats GST differently. This is general information, not tax advice: the right structure depends on your entity type, your turnover and how the practice accounts for GST, so confirm it with your accountant before you sign.

Start with the structure, not the rate. A secured term loan, a chattel mortgage and a lease each change who owns the asset, when GST is claimed and how the repayments hit your cash flow, and the cheapest headline rate is not necessarily the cheapest facility once the residual, the exit costs and the tax position are counted.

Then compare the field. Lenders differ on the points that matter most to a practitioner: how much of a practice purchase they will finance (most lenders on Emu Money's panel finance 50 to 70%, against the 100% some specialist medico lenders advertise), whether they take goodwill as security, how long any interest-only period runs and what they ask of a start-up. Emu Money puts 50+ lenders into one application so the mainstream comparison is done for you, at no cost to you, and the specialist terms above give you the benchmark to hold any offer against.

Finally, plan the timing. A practice purchase settles through your solicitor on the contract timetable; same-day approvals are available for straightforward equipment and vehicle applications with complete documents, and vendors are paid directly at settlement. Subject to lender approval, terms and conditions apply.