Finance for Doctors: Practice, Equipment, Car and Personal Loans for GPs, Specialists and Registrars

Finance for doctors follows your career stage: a salaried registrar borrows on payslips, a contractor GP on billings and BAS, a practice owner on the practice's financials. Through Emu Money that means practice loans from 7.59%, equipment and business car finance from 6.59%, personal loans from 6.3% and unsecured business loans from 9.95%, compared across 50+ lenders.

What finance for doctors covers

Doctors borrow for the same handful of things at different points in a career: a car, personal costs, equipment and rooms, working capital and a share of a practice. The routes below are the ones Emu Money compares across 50+ lenders; where the specialist medico lenders publicly offer something different, this page says so.

How lenders assess a doctor at each stage

A lender can read a doctor in three layers: registration, income and security. Registration can be checked on Ahpra's public register; a specialist title is protected by law and needs specialist registration, which normally follows fellowship of an AMC-accredited specialist college, so whether you hold provisional, general or specialist registration is visible before a single document is read.

Income is where the stages differ. Of the 122,116 medical practitioners registered and employed in Australia in 2024, according to the National Health Workforce Dataset, 19,428 were specialists-in-training and 15,066 hospital non-specialists: more than one in four, and that group is generally salaried and borrows on payslips and an employment contract. The 32,929 GPs and 46,399 specialists include contractors on an ABN, who show BAS, tax returns and billing reports, and practice owners, who show the practice's financials.

Security follows the purpose: a car or a piece of equipment secures itself, a practice loan is secured against the practice's assets or other security or, with some specialist medico lenders, its goodwill, and an unsecured loan rests on a personal guarantee. Some specialist medico lenders publicly offer doctors car finance with detailed financials not required in most cases, subject to credit approval; lenders on Emu Money's panel generally assess a doctor on the documents, the income and the security, as they would any professional borrower.

Interns, residents and registrars

A junior doctor is a salaried employee, usually of a hospital or health service, so the borrowing that fits is personal. Through Emu Money that means a personal car loan from 5.67% for $5,000 to $200,000 over 1 to 7 years, or a personal loan from 6.3% for $2,000 to $75,000+ over the same terms, for exam and college fees as a registrar, a move for a rotation or consolidating a credit card. Approval generally rests on payslips, the employment contract, your credit file and bank statement conduct, not on the title.

Business finance needs an ABN, and usually some trading history behind it. Most Australian businesses with an active ABN can apply for a business loan through Emu Money, and a registrar who locums under an ABN can use that income, but most lenders on the panel want a sole trader's ABN registered for 6 to 12 months before they will look at an unsecured loan. The car loans page covers the novated lease route for a salaried doctor whose employer offers packaging, and what to check on graduate car offers.

GPs: contractors, associates and practice owners

Close to one in four practising GPs (24%) own a practice, according to the RACGP's 2025 Health of the Nation survey, and 34% of GPs in training say they would like to. Non-owner GPs work as contractors, employees or locums. Under a typical service agreement a contractor GP bills patients and Medicare under their own provider number for that location and pays the practice a service fee for rooms, staff and administration, so a lender reads BAS, tax returns and the billing reports rather than payslips.

A partnership share is usually priced largely on goodwill, and most lenders on Emu Money's panel finance 50 to 70% of the purchase price of an established practice with a clean trading history and verified financials, with the buyer contributing the rest, so a $400,000 share means $200,000 to $280,000 of lending and $120,000 to $200,000 from you. Some specialist medico lenders publicly offer up to 100%, secured against the practice's goodwill and equipment, subject to credit approval. The medical practice loans page covers goodwill lending, the documents and the tax on a purchase.

A start-up practice is assessed on you rather than a trading history: registration, a business plan, projected billings and a fit-out budget, with the finance priced on the application rather than at the product floors. A Medicare provider number is tied to a practitioner at a practice location, so you need one for the new location before you can bill from it, and the setting up a medical practice checklist runs through the order.

Specialists: rooms, equipment and the buy-in

A specialist's borrowing usually starts with rooms. Sessional rooms are rented by the session and need little or no borrowing. Your own suite is a fit-out financed through Emu Money from 6.59% on the equipment and on a practice term loan from 7.59% for the fixed works, and the commercial property loan page covers buying the rooms outright, from $100,000 to $10,000,000+ over 1 to 30 years, where lenders on the panel apply standard loan-to-value ratios of 65 to 80%.

Equipment is the next layer: ultrasound, endoscopy, ophthalmic and procedural equipment goes on medical equipment finance through Emu Money from 6.59% for $5,000 to $2,000,000 over 1 to 7 years, secured on the item, and some specialist medico lenders publicly offer equipment finance from $2,000 with terms matched to the equipment's lifespan and several supplier invoices consolidated into one agreement, subject to credit approval. A part-time staff specialist with private rooms shows a lender a payslip and an ABN, and a lender can take both incomes into account; a visiting medical officer invoices the hospital and bills private patients from the rooms through the ABN, so the file is read largely as business income.

Buying into a group practice works as it does for a GP: a partnership share in an established practice financed at 50 to 70% through most lenders on the panel, or more with some specialist medico lenders, as above, with the practice's two to three years of financials, its billing mix and its reliance on any departing principal typically read before the loan is priced. An associate buying into the practice they already work in is typically the file lenders like best.

Personal and professional loans for doctors

A personal loan for doctors is the same product any borrower takes, assessed on the doctor's income: through Emu Money from 6.3% for $2,000 to $75,000+ over 1 to 7 years, secured or unsecured; strong applicants may access up to $200,000 unsecured, subject to rigorous assessment. A salaried doctor is assessed on payslips; a contractor on an ABN is typically asked for 6 to 12 months of ABN registration and BAS as proof of income.

In business and personal lending, "professional loan" is a label rather than a defined product. Lenders and brokers use it for finance offered on the strength of a registered profession, typically with lighter documentation or wider terms than a general borrower would be offered, and in that lending it can describe a personal loan, an unsecured practice loan or a package of both. Ask what the product actually is: the security, the term, the rate and the fees decide the cost, not the label.

For a practice the equivalent through Emu Money is the unsecured business loan from 9.95% for $5,000 to $500,000 over 3 months to 5 years, used for almost any legitimate business purpose, from working capital to consolidating practice debts, with a personal guarantee standard and no asset pledged. At the 9.95% floor a $50,000 loan over 5 years costs about $1,060 a month and roughly $13,700 in interest over the term, before fees; the rate you are offered depends on trading history, turnover and credit profile.

A tax debt is one use, and the maths on it changed in 2025: the ATO's general interest charge is no longer deductible for interest incurred on or after 1 July 2025, whatever year the debt relates to, while interest on a business loan is generally deductible only to the extent the money is used in the practice. Whether a loan taken to clear an ATO debt meets that test for your entity is a question for your accountant before you refinance. For debts in your own name, a personal debt consolidation loan through Emu Money rolls credit cards, personal loans and buy now pay later balances into one repayment, from $2,000 to $100,000+ over 1 to 7 years.

Cars, equipment and tax

A doctor on an ABN buys a car on a business car loan through Emu Money from 6.59% for $10,000 to $500,000+ over 1 to 7 years, usually as a chattel mortgage, which puts the car on the books of the business that holds the ABN. The car loans page works through the tax treatment for a sole trader, for a company or trust, and for a salaried doctor weighing a novated lease through their employer against a personal car loan from 5.67%.

Eligible assets costing less than $20,000 each can generally be written off in the year they are first used or installed ready for use by a practice with aggregated turnover under $10 million, and interest is generally deductible for the share used in the practice. Borrowing costs such as establishment and valuation fees are generally spread over five years or the loan term, whichever is shorter; the fit-out finance page and the medical professionals hub carry the detail. This page is general information, not tax advice; your accountant confirms the treatment for your entity.

How to compare finance for doctors

1. Borrow in the right name. You, your company or your trust: the borrower decides who signs, who gives the personal guarantee and who claims the interest.
2. Match the route to the stage. Salaried means personal finance, or a novated lease if your employer offers packaging; an ABN opens business finance; a practice owner borrows on the practice's financials.
3. Line up the documents first. Current registration, then payslips or BAS and tax returns, then the practice's financials if there is a practice.
4. Keep the practice, the rooms and the car in separate facilities. Each is secured, termed and taxed differently, and a lender prices them separately.
5. Compare total cost, not the label. A "professional" or "doctor" loan is judged on its rate, fees, term and security like any other.

Emu Money compares finance for doctors at every stage: practice loans from 7.59%, equipment and business car finance from 6.59%, personal loans from 6.3% and unsecured business loans from 9.95%, across 50+ lenders, with no impact on your credit score at the comparison stage, and our finance specialists match the route to where you are in your career. Salaried doctors compare personal loans and personal car loans on the personal pages, and the medical professionals hub covers dentists, vets and the rest of the section. Subject to lender approval, terms, and conditions apply.

This page is general information only and is not financial advice.