Thinktank Review (2026): Who Their Commercial, SMSF and Home Loans Actually Suit
Thinktank is a non-bank lender based in North Sydney, a few blocks from our office. It started in 2006 doing commercial property loans, added SMSF lending in 2013 and residential home loans in 2018, and has now funded more than $18 billion of mortgage-secured lending with around 200 staff across five cities. It does not lend to the public directly. Every Thinktank loan comes through a mortgage broker.
We place loans with Thinktank. We also decline to place loans with Thinktank when a bank will do the job cheaper. This review is written from that chair: what they are good at, what they charge, where they will not go, and the three situations where I actually pick up the phone to them.
Rates and fees below are from Thinktank’s published rate sheet effective 17 August 2026 (SMSF sheet 9 July 2026). They move. Treat them as a guide to where Thinktank sits, not a quote.
“Thinktank is the lender I reach for when a bank has said yes to the property and no to the person. Self-employed, two entities, income that needs explaining. They read the file instead of scoring it. The trade-off is price, so I only put a client there when the story genuinely will not fit a bank.”
Mansour Soltani, Director, Soren Financial
The short version
Thinktank suits you if you are self-employed or run a business and your last tax return does not describe your real income, you are buying commercial property or business premises, your SMSF wants to buy property without a bank demanding a cash buffer after settlement, or you have a good lease on an investment property and a complicated personal position.
Thinktank does not suit you if you are a salaried employee with clean payslips and a 20% deposit (a bank will beat their rate), you have less than a 20% deposit (Thinktank stops at 80% and does not use Lenders Mortgage Insurance), you are building or developing, you have a credit impairment, or the property is vacant land, rural residential, or in a town of fewer than 10,000 people.
What Thinktank lends on
| Commercial | SMSF | Residential | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loan size | $100,000 to $10 million | Commercial to $10 million, residential to $5 million | $100,000 to $5 million |
| Maximum LVR | 80% | 80% (GST funding above that on commercial) | 80%, or 75% above $2.5 million |
| Term | Up to 30 years, 5 years interest-only | Up to 30 years, 5 years interest-only | Up to 30 years, 5 years interest-only |
| Income documents | Full doc, mid doc, quick doc, lease doc | Fund income, rent, contributions (actual or projected) | Full doc, or self-certified income backed by one of six documents |
| Credit scoring | None, assessed on merit | None | None, and no debt-to-income cap |
| Ongoing | No annual reviews, no monthly fees | No annual reviews, no liquidity test after settlement | No monthly fees |
Source: Thinktank broker product pages, read 20 September 2026. LVR is the loan as a share of the property value.
Rates and fees, as at the August 2026 rate sheet
| Product | Rate range (p.a.) | Establishment fee |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial full doc | 7.69% to 8.84% | 0.95% + GST, or 1.50% + GST with no early repayment fee |
| Commercial mid doc | 8.39% to 9.64% | as above |
| Commercial quick doc | 8.99% to 9.49% | as above |
| Commercial lease doc | 8.10% to 8.80% | as above |
| Residential full doc | 6.78% to 7.99% | $650 + GST, or 0.50% |
| Residential mid doc | 6.93% to 8.24% | $650 + GST, or 0.50% |
| SMSF commercial (to $4 million) | 7.59% to 8.03% | 0.475% + GST (promotional at the time of writing) |
| SMSF residential | 7.09% to 8.09% | 0.475% + GST (promotional at the time of writing) |
Where you land inside each range depends on LVR and loan size, not on what the money is for. Residential valuations are $385 including GST. Commercial valuations are at cost. There are no monthly account fees on any product.
For context, a clean owner-occupier at a major bank in September 2026 is paying in the high fives. Thinktank’s residential book starts around a percentage point above that. You are paying for flexibility, and if you do not need the flexibility you should not pay for it.
What I like about them, from a broker’s chair
- No annual reviews on commercial loans. Bank commercial facilities usually come with an annual review clause: send in the financials every year, and if the numbers have slipped the bank can reprice or call the loan. Thinktank sets the loan and leaves it alone. For a business owner that is worth real money in sleep.
- No credit scoring. A human reads the file. A thin credit history, a short ABN, an odd income mix, none of those trip an automated decline. Genuine credit impairment is still a no, but a messy story is not.
- No cross-collateralisation. They take the property they are lending on and do not ask to tie up your home as well, which is more than most banks manage on a commercial deal.
- Lease doc. If the rent on a commercial property covers the repayments, Thinktank can lend on the lease rather than on your personal tax returns. For investors with complicated personal income this is often the difference between a yes and a no.
- SMSF without a liquidity test after settlement. Most SMSF lenders want the fund to hold a cash buffer, often 10% of the loan, sitting idle after the purchase. Thinktank does not, and does not re-value or review the loan each year either.
- Rates priced on LVR and size, not purpose. A cash-out for business use costs the same as a purchase at the same LVR. Banks routinely load rate for purpose.
Where they fall short
- Price. On a clean PAYG file a major bank or a sharp online lender will beat them by a clear margin. Thinktank is a specialist and priced like one.
- 80% is the ceiling. No Lenders Mortgage Insurance route, so no 85%, 90% or 95% lending. First home buyers using the 5% deposit guarantee are in the wrong place.
- The establishment fee. 0.95% plus GST on a $1.5 million commercial loan is about $15,700 before the valuation. Banks often charge a fraction of that. It is the cost of the flexibility above, and you should do the sum.
- No construction, no development, no land. If there is a builder involved, look elsewhere. Our development finance page explains who does.
- No credit-impaired lending. Defaults, judgments or a recent bankruptcy put you with a different class of lender.
- Location limits. Postcodes with fewer than 10,000 people, rural residential and specialty properties such as service stations, churches and aged care are excluded.
The three situations where I use Thinktank
A business owner buying their own premises with one year of financials
Banks generally want two full years of financials for a commercial loan and will average them, which punishes a business that grew. Thinktank’s mid doc will work off the most recent year and an accountant’s declaration. The rate is higher than a bank’s, but the bank rate is worth nothing if the bank says no. Once the second year is in, we look at refinancing.
An SMSF buying a commercial property, usually the business’s own
The classic set-up: the fund buys the warehouse or the clinic, the business pays market rent to the fund. Banks that still do SMSF lending want liquidity after settlement and often insist on a personal guarantee structure that makes accountants nervous. Thinktank lends up to 80%, funds the GST on top, and does not ask the fund to sit on idle cash. More on the structure in our SMSF commercial property loans guide.
An investor with a strong lease and a complicated personal position
A good tenant on a five-year lease, and an owner whose income comes from three entities and a trust. A bank assessor spends a fortnight on the personal side and then discounts most of it. Lease doc sidesteps that: the property services itself, so the loan is assessed on the property.
What all three have in common is that the property is solid and the person is hard to read. That is Thinktank’s lane. It is not the lender for a straightforward file, and a broker who puts a straightforward file there is costing you money.
How Thinktank compares with the alternatives
In the same specialist space we regularly look at La Trobe Financial, Liberty and Pepper Money for commercial and self-employed lending. Very roughly: La Trobe is the closest like-for-like on commercial and will also do some credit-impaired and construction work that Thinktank will not; Liberty goes further down the credit spectrum at a higher price; Pepper is stronger on residential alt doc and weaker on larger commercial. Thinktank tends to win on clean self-employed commercial and on SMSF where the no-liquidity rule matters. Which one suits you comes down to the file, which is the whole reason to use a broker rather than pick a lender off a review.
If you want the numbers first, our commercial property loan calculator shows repayments and the fee impact across a range of rates, and our commercial broker page explains how we run a commercial file in about four hours of your time.
Thinktank questions we get asked
Is Thinktank a bank?
No. It is a non-bank lender that funds its loans by packaging them into mortgage-backed securities and selling those to institutional investors, more than $13 billion worth so far. It holds an Australian Credit Licence (564080) and is regulated by ASIC, but it does not take deposits and is not covered by the government deposit guarantee, which only matters if you are a depositor, not a borrower.
Can I apply to Thinktank directly?
No. Thinktank only lends through accredited mortgage brokers. If you go to their website as a customer it points you to a broker. We are accredited with them.
Does Thinktank credit score?
No. Every application is assessed by a credit analyst on its merits. That does not mean anything goes. Defaults and judgments are still declined. It means a thin file or an unusual one gets read rather than rejected by a formula.
What is a lease doc loan?
A commercial loan assessed on the rent the property earns rather than on your personal income. If the lease comfortably covers the repayments, Thinktank will lend against it with much less personal financial paperwork. It suits investors whose own income is complex.
Does Thinktank do home loans for first home buyers?
Technically yes, practically rarely. The 80% LVR cap rules out anyone using the 5% or 10% deposit schemes, and a first home buyer with a 20% deposit and a payslip will get a better rate at a bank. Our first home buyer grants page covers the schemes that do fit.
Where I’d leave it
Thinktank is a good specialist lender that is honest about what it is. It will not chase the cheapest rate and it will not pretend to be a bank. If your file is the kind a bank scores and declines, it is one of the first two or three calls we make. If your file is clean, it should not be on the list at all.
Not sure which side of that line you are on? Two minutes with the loan matcher tells us enough to say, and we call back within one business hour.
General information only, not credit advice, and not an offer of finance from Thinktank or anyone else. Rates, fees and policies are Thinktank’s published figures at the dates shown and change without notice. Soren Financial is accredited with Thinktank and may receive a commission if a loan settles, which does not change the rate you pay. Credit Representative 527161 of Finsure Finance and Insurance Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 384704.