Intellect Finance

Intellect Finance Intellect Finance is the best Mortgage Broker located in Penrith. Joe and the team put the customers first with a personal approach.

Specialising in a large range of loans including; Home Loans, Commercial Loans, Vehicle Loans, Equipment Loans, Business Loans, Investor Loans, Self-Employed Loans, Construction Loans, a... Specialising in a large range of loans including; Home Loans, Commercial Loans, Vehicle Loans, Equipment Loans, Business Loans, Investor Loans, Self-Employed Loans, Construction Loans, and Personal Loans. We he

lp customers with their first home purchase, Investment property, Vehicles or equipment, and asset finance. If you are looking for the best Mortgage Broker in Penrith, then look no further! We service clients throughout Greater Western Sydney and beyond, perfectly located for Kingswood, Orchard Hills, Caddens, Cranebrook, Glenmore Park, Jamisontown, Mulgoa, Blaxland the Blue Mountains, and all surrounds.

Universal Property Group and associated Bathla entities entered voluntary administration last Tuesday.Teneo are still as...
01/09/2026

Universal Property Group and associated Bathla entities entered voluntary administration last Tuesday.

Teneo are still assessing the situation, so anyone confidently explaining exactly what happened is guessing.

But the broader conditions are worth paying attention to.

Sydney development finance has been caught between two forces:

1. Debt got more expensive.
The cash rate rose from 3.6% to 4.35% this year, putting pressure on project feasibilities that were often built around very different assumptions.

2. Lending terms got looser.
The RBA has noted easing in developer credit conditions, including less stringent pre-sale requirements and reduced collateral - particularly from non-bank and private lenders.

And that matters.

Pre-sales are a lender’s evidence that a project will actually sell at something close to the assumed price. If those requirements are reduced, the risk doesn’t disappear. It simply moves somewhere else.

Add softer sales, higher debt costs and construction costs, and development feasibility can become very difficult very quickly.

ASIC has also been raising concerns around the concentration of private credit in property development, including transparency around impaired assets and related-party arrangements.

This isn’t an argument against non-bank development finance. It plays a huge role in funding housing and many viable projects simply couldn’t proceed without it.

But developers should be asking more than:

“What’s the cheapest funding?”

Ask:

• Where does the lender’s capital come from?
• What happens if their own funding tightens?
• How flexible is the drawdown?
• Am I comfortable with the pre-sales position they’ve allowed?

Because the cheapest terms aren’t always the terms you actually want.

And if you’re a buyer caught up in a development that’s entered administration, that’s a different conversation.

Speak to your solicitor about your contract and your finance broker about whether your approval remains current. Approvals expire, and settlement delays don’t necessarily stop the clock.

General information only - not personal advice.

There are three types of lender operating in Australia and most borrowers I speak to have only ever dealt with one.Being...
27/08/2026

There are three types of lender operating in Australia and most borrowers I speak to have only ever dealt with one.

Being declined by a bank simply tells you that you don’t fit that specific bank’s criteria. Not others.

People hear it as something much bigger than that and forget there are lots of other avenues they can pursue that will accept them.

➞ Banks.
Regulated, deposit-taking, generally the cheapest money and the most rigid criteria. If your situation is straightforward and your income is easy to evidence, this is where you want to be. If it isn’t, you can spend a long time being assessed against a policy you were never going to fit.

➞ Non-bank lenders.
They don’t take deposits, they fund from wholesale markets. More flexibility in how income gets assessed, which matters for self-employed borrowers, anyone with recent credit issues, or a situation that needs explaining rather than just documenting. Usually priced above a bank.

➞ Private lenders.
Individuals or funds lending their own money. Fast, and far more focused on the asset and the exit than on tax returns. Meaningfully more expensive and generally short term. Sometimes speed genuinely is the deciding factor. Sometimes people end up there because nobody told them the first two were possible.

None of these is better than the others. They reallly just exist for different situations.

The part worth thinking about is that non-bank and private finance are often a stage rather than a destination.

If you end up there, it’s worth knowing at the outset what would need to change to refinance into something cheaper later, and roughly how long that takes.

Good thing that’s what we’re here for.

(General information only, not personal advice.)

Sometimes you just have to have a look at the economy....and take a big sip of wine.Thank you for all the birthday wishe...
26/08/2026

Sometimes you just have to have a look at the economy....and take a big sip of wine.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes yesterday, I really do appreciate it.

Special thank you to See Saw Wine, who my family took me to visit their winery on a surprise trip to Orange. Would highly recommend!

Here's to another blessed year around the sun 🥂
🧡

No, you don’t need property to borrow. It helps, and it changes the price, but it isn’t the entry requirement people thi...
25/08/2026

No, you don’t need property to borrow. It helps, and it changes the price, but it isn’t the entry requirement people think it is.

Plenty of business owners never make the call because they’ve got nothing spare to put up. That’s a decision made on an assumption, and the assumption is wrong often enough to be worth correcting.

Security sits on a spectrum. Fully secured at one end, unsecured at the other, and most files land somewhere in between. Where yours lands depends far more on what the business earns than on what you own.

The core question a lender is working out is whether the business can service the debt from its own cashflow.

Property is one way for them to get comfortable, butt isn’t the only one.

Things that move a file toward needing less security:

> trading history, because years of consistent numbers read very differently to eighteen months.

> Revenue that’s predictable, particularly contracted or recurring rather than project to project.

> Financials that actually reflect what the business makes. And not much existing debt sitting in front of the new facility.

Less security isn’t automatically better. It’s generally priced higher, because the lender is carrying more risk and that shows up somewhere. Sometimes putting up security is the right call precisely because of what it does to the terms.

But that’s a decision, not a prerequisite.

General information only, not personal advice. Every lender assesses differently.

Most business owners could name one type of commercial loan - there are at least seven.After working with almost every s...
24/08/2026

Most business owners could name one type of commercial loan - there are at least seven.

After working with almost every sector, here’s a basic list of the core loans we typically oversee:

Commercial property. Buying premises, refinancing what you own, or buying the building your business currently rents. That last one surprises people once they realise it’s available.

Business acquisition. Funding the purchase of a business or buying out a partner. Assessed differently to property lending because the earnings carry more of the weight.

Working capital. Covering the gap between paying suppliers and getting paid. Overdrafts, lines of credit, invoice finance.

Equipment and asset finance. Vehicles, machinery, plant, fitouts. Usually secured by the asset itself, which is why it’s often available when other lending isn’t.

Construction and development. Drawn down in stages against progress rather than as one lump. Different rules, different lenders.

Debt consolidation. Including ATO debt, which plenty of business owners don’t realise can be handled through finance rather than a payment plan.

SMSF commercial property. Buying commercial premises inside a self-managed super fund, often the property the business already operates from.

Most businesses run two or three of these at once without ever looking at how they fit together. That’s exactly where working with a broker can help - we put the pieces together.

If you’re curious about if any of these may be helpful to your business - shoot me a message anytime 👍

(General information only, not personal advice. SMSF arrangements carry tax and superannuation considerations to work through with your accountant or a licensed adviser.)

Last night, Intellect Finance were so proud to be one of the sponsors and attend the Parousia Media Fundraiser Gala Dinn...
21/08/2026

Last night, Intellect Finance were so proud to be one of the sponsors and attend the Parousia Media Fundraiser Gala Dinner!

Special thank you to Charbel who founded Parousia Media, it was a wonderful event that I’m so grateful my family and I got to be a part of.

Also always great to celebrate with my friends and fellow business owners - Charlie Bakhos, Steven Khalil and DY .

Blessed to share this life with so many amazing people 🙏

Someone told me last week they were sitting on cash until things settle down.Fair enough. I understand why they had that...
20/08/2026

Someone told me last week they were sitting on cash until things settle down.

Fair enough. I understand why they had that instinct. But it’s definitely worth putting a number on what that decision costs, because most people never do.

With inflation running around 3.8 per cent, cash isn’t parked. It’s shrinking (in the background) at a rate you can basically predict.

You’ve agreed to that before you’ve done anything else. And I think a lot of people who describe themselves as waiting have swapped one kind of exposure for another.

Sitting still is a decision too. It just doesn’t look like one from the outside.

The other thing I’d say is that a tightening cycle doesn’t really reduce appetite. What it moves is the hurdle.

Rates have gone from 3.6 to 4.35 across three increases this year, so debt costs more, so a deal has to work harder before it makes sense at all. Fewer things are clearing that bar. The ones that do tend to need more equity, longer timelines and different structures.

None of which means people stop. The investors and business owners I speak to just move to wherever the numbers still work.

Now, one thing I should be upfront about, because it changes how much weight you’d want to put on any of this.

I only see the ones who are still transacting.

Someone who stretched themselves in 2021 and is spending this year working their way back down doesn’t ring a broker. They’re not in front of me. So when we say around the office that investors will always invest, what we’re actually describing is the room we happen to be standing in. Everyone who left it is invisible to us, by definition.

Doesn’t make it wrong. Makes it partial, and I’d rather say that than pretend I’ve got the full picture.

Honestly, the group I’m more curious about is the one I don’t hear from. What are the people who stopped doing while they wait? Nobody writes about them and I suspect there’s more going on there than we think.

General information only, not personal advice.

People ask what the actual difference is between someone doing well in this industry and someone struggling, and the ans...
19/08/2026

People ask what the actual difference is between someone doing well in this industry and someone struggling, and the answer isn’t very impressive.

I answer the phone.

That’s literally it. I learnt this in my twenties working at CBA - I was writing considerably more business than people sitting a few desks away who knew far more than I did, and for a while I couldn’t work out why.

It definitely wasn’t product knowledge or age or my sales skills (still a work in progress).

They just weren’t ringing anybody back.

A message would come in at four and get returned Thursday. A client would call with a question and get told someone would look into it.

Meanwhile I’d call people for no particular reason. How’d the settlement go? Did the valuation come back? Anything I can help with?

Half those calls had no purpose at all and they’re the reason I’m still doing this.
Because what people want when there’s money involved is to know where things stand and that someone actually cares. That’s the whole job.

A first home buyer who’s nervous about whether their deposit’s enough gets the same treatment as someone doing a multi-million dollar acquisition. Same phone, same day.

I’ve never had a system for sorting who’s worth calling back because news flash - everyone is.

I wish more people would stop complaining that there’s no work around when the only time they’ve ever cared about talking to a customer was when their phone was dry.

Another amazing review for the team! “Intellect Finance are hands-down the best finance and mortgage brokers I’ve ever e...
18/08/2026

Another amazing review for the team!

“Intellect Finance are hands-down the best finance and mortgage brokers I’ve ever encountered.

Not only have I found them to be incredibly experienced and knowledgeable in all types of loans (home, personal, business, asset finance), they sincerely go above and beyond for all of their clients.

Their turnarounds are so fast, communicate through the entire process and make it as easy & stress-free as possible.

Working with them is a no-brainer and there is nobody I would recommend to my family or friends to take care of their financing.

Thank you guys for all of your hard work!”

Thank you so much to all our for your ongoing support - it brings the team such pride knowing we make a difference for our clients 🧡

The number of lenders on a broker’s panel is a bad thing to brag about. I say that as someone with over 100.The number o...
17/08/2026

The number of lenders on a broker’s panel is a bad thing to brag about. I say that as someone with over 100.

The number on its own tells you nothing, and the reason people assume it matters is the wrong reason. Most hear it and think rate shopping. More lenders, more quotes, sharper price. That’s the least interesting thing a panel does.

Whether your a first home buyer, completing a business acquisition or buying new equipment - here’s what this means:

You think of yourself as one borrower with one set of numbers. Lenders don’t. Every one of them has its own policy on how income gets treated.

Overtime, bonuses, commission, casual work, a second job, self-employed income and what can be added back.

Their own view on trust and company structures, on HECS, on novated leases, on how much of your existing credit limit counts against you. Their own rules about property type, apartment size, postcode.

Which means the same person, same payslips, same deposit, is a different application at every lender. Not slightly different. Different enough that one says no and another says yes at the full amount.

So when a bank declines someone, what they hear is that they don’t qualify.
Usually that isn’t what happened. Their situation didn’t fit that lender’s policy, and nobody explained the difference to them.

A big panel on its own is just a phone book though. It’s only worth something if you know which lenders behave which way, and that knowledge goes stale fast, so keeping it current is most of the job.

And sometimes the honest answer is still no. A good broker tells you that too, rather than firing your file at twelve lenders hoping one of them slips.

When you get knocked back, the more useful question is usually which lender, not whether you qualify.

If this is you, message me and tell me what they actually said. Half the time the answer is sitting in the wording of the decline, and it takes about ten minutes to work out whether it’s worth another look.

(General information only, not personal credit advice. Lending policies vary and change, eligibility criteria apply, and not every borrower will qualify.)

Address

Suite 2/86 Henry Street
Penrith, NSW
2750

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+611800733000

Website

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