Complex Structure Lending Across Companies and Trusts
Confident lending for complex lives.
When your finances involve multiple entities, diversified income, or interlinked property holdings, a standard home loan rarely fits.
Oakwood Finance arranges Complex Structure Lending for borrowers nationwide who need lending that respects the way their world is set up – companies, trusts, SMSFs, unit‑holder structures, cross‑collateralised portfolios, and sophisticated income streams.
Our approach reflects our brand values of trust, precision and empowerment, with a calm, discreet process that prioritises clarity at every step.
Running a multi-entity file as one project
One file, one checklist, one set of records.
Each company, trust or fund brings its own accounts, tax returns and ownership documents, and a lender reads them together. We keep one checklist across every entity and a record of which entity owes what and which property backs which loan, so the lender can read the file as a whole.
We raise cross-collateralisation and personal liability with you before you sign anything. After settlement we diarise review dates and expiries, so the next conversation with a lender is planned rather than forced. Tax, legal and financial advice stays with your own advisers, and the credit decision stays with the lender.
To talk through your structure, book a time with a broker or contact us.
Who this service is for
Company directors and business owners with layered income and distributions
Self‑employed borrowers using low‑doc/alt‑doc pathways when standard documentation is impractical
Family & discretionary trusts seeking to acquire or refinance residential or commercial property
SMSF trustees looking to purchase property under an LRBA
Investors with complex portfolios (multiple securities, offsets, or interest‑only strategies)
Non‑resident/expat buyers navigating FIRB requirements and foreign‑income assessment
When the structure is the whole problem
Plenty of perfectly sound borrowers get declined because an assessor could not follow the structure in the time they had. Multiple entities, a trust or two, related-party leases, income arriving through a service company. None of it is exotic, but it does not fit a form with one box for income.
What we see most
Income through several entities. A trading company, a service trust and a personal salary that together represent one household’s earnings. Some lenders add them properly; others may count the liabilities more than once and give little weight to some of the income.
Related-party arrangements. The business renting premises from a trust the owners control. Entirely normal, and read by some credit teams as a risk they will not price.
Layered trusts and corporate trustees. Where the guarantor structure has to be mapped before the lending can be assessed at all.
Retained profits. Income that sits in a company rather than being drawn, so the personal tax return understates what the household actually earns.
What actually changes the outcome
Presenting the structure before presenting the request. We build a one-page diagram of the entities, who owns what, where the income arises and which entity is borrowing, and put it on top of the application. It sounds almost too simple, and it can help, because the assessor is no longer reverse-engineering your affairs from a pile of statements. Each lender decides for itself.
The second thing is lender selection. Policy on trust income, add-backs for depreciation and one-off costs, and treatment of related-party rent varies enormously. Choosing the lender whose policy already fits your shape beats arguing with one whose policy does not.
Bring your accountant
On these files we would rather speak to your accountant early than late. They can confirm add-backs, explain a one-off in the accounts, and provide the letter a lender will ask for anyway. Having the accountant involved from the start can help the file reach the lender complete.
An illustrative worked example
An illustrative example of how a file like this can be approached. It is not a client outcome, and no result is implied. This is general information only, not credit assistance, a quote or a recommendation. Every structure depends on individual circumstances, lender credit policy and approval. Oakwood arranges credit through its lending partners; all lending is subject to lender assessment and approval.
Worked example · Business owners across three entities
Presenting the structure before presenting the request
Structure to consider: a trust purchase with the company as guarantor
The situation. A couple earning through a trading company, a discretionary trust and one PAYG salary wants to buy a home. A previous application has already been declined.
The complication. The decline can come down to how the structure was read: the company’s debts are counted in full against the couple while only the small salary is recognised as income, because the distributions and retained profits are not evidenced in a form the lender’s template accepts. On paper they look heavily geared and barely earning, when the household’s real income may be well above the figure being assessed.
What we would look at. Building the entity diagram, obtaining an accountant’s letter confirming the distributions and the add-backs, and evidencing the retained profits properly. Then looking at lenders whose policy recognises trust distributions and does not count the directors’ guarantor commitments more than once where the company services its own debt, and presenting the file with the structure explained on page one rather than buried in attachments.
What the example shows. A previous decline does not always mean the income is the problem: whether a lender reads the entities as one household or as several unrelated businesses can depend on how the structure is explained. Each lender applies its own policy and decides for itself, so a decline from one lender is not a decision by all of them.
Before your next application
The guide sets out why multi-entity borrowers get declined on income they plainly have, what the entity diagram needs to show, and everything your accountant will be asked for.