As a lot owner, you'll know there are many ways to plan and pay for urgent repairs, upgrades or improvements to enhance the value of your building.
Your strata plan will need to consider the following factors to choose the best funding options:
How fast do you need the funds?
Do you want to choose from a wide range of suppliers?
Would you prefer to make incremental payments over a period of time, or one lump sum?
Traditional funding options typically only tick one of these boxes, and have potential drawbacks.
Sinking funds
A sinking fund collects regular payments over time through regular strata levies. However, depending on the extent of work that needs to be carried out, you may not have sufficient funds available. While you wait for funds to accumulate, work costs may increase.
Special levies
Alternatively, your strata plan may decide to strike a special levy which may create cash flow problems for owners, delay works and increase costs. The other consideration is that current lot owners will fully pay for work that future owners are likely to benefit from.
Finance through your supplier
You could choose to finance the work through a supplier or contractor, make small incremental payments and get work underway straight away. However, not all contractors offer financing so this limits your options – and you may end up paying a higher rate for their services.
Tick the boxes with a Strata Improvement Loan
Get work started quickly with your preferred contractor and stretch the payments out over a longer period with Macquarie's Strata Improvement Loan (SIL).
Macquarie has assisted strata plans with funding for:
Major renovations
Unbudgeted items like fire order upgrades or emergency repairs
Energy efficiency upgrades, such as upgrades to lighting or cooling systems to reduce ongoing running costs
New balustrades, window locks or swimming pools that meet the latest safety requirements
Large-scale capital works to enhance the value of the building.
Macquarie’s SILs allow owners to carry out work quickly with upfront funding, avoiding potentially costly delays as you wait for funds to be collected.
It also reduces the immediate cost burden on owners to fund upfront large-scale works.
A SIL can cover multiple works at once to improve cost efficiencies and minimise disruption to residents. Additionally, repayments can be added to your regular strata levy for easier administration.
This means you can make building improvements and repairs with confidence – and avoid higher costs in the future if you delay works.
Easy to apply, easy to repay
All it takes to apply is a resolution by the strata plan to borrow the funds. Once approved* the process to receive the funds is quick and easy, outlined on our website here.
Use our online loan repayment calculator to estimate the cost of the loan over your desired timeframe, and scale works up or down as you need to. You might find you can borrow more than you thought and can add extra works into your proposal.
To find out more about SILs, click here.
Why choose a Strata Improvement Loan?
Get work started immediately and avoid costly delays
Use your preferred contractor to carry out the works
Spread the cost of repairs out over a longer timeframe.
Find out today how much you could potentially borrow with our strata improvement loan repayment calculator.
This article was provided by Macquarie Bank
Comments