Can I finance warehouse racking and fit-out?

A racked warehouse is a set of linked purchases: pallet racking and install, something to lift the pallets, and the fit-out around them, such as lighting, an office, dock equipment and safety gear. Lenders often treat most of it as equipment with its own value, so it can be financed in one facility instead of three. The forklift is the easiest piece to price. A new 2.5 tonne LPG or diesel counterbalance runs $17,900 to $39,900 depending on brand, a new lithium electric counterbalance $23,089 to $41,041 for Chinese-built machines and $45,000 to $65,000 for premium brands, and a ride-on reach truck for narrow aisles $40,000 to $80,000 plus (forklift prices guide).

The building side has its own numbers. The construction cost guide puts a 4,500 square metre warehouse at $840 to $1,960 per square metre to build and a standard lettable-spec warehouse at $1,500 to $2,500, with attached air-conditioned offices priced separately at $1,980 to $4,100 per square metre of office area (construction cost guide). Those are building rates, so a tenant fitting out a leased warehouse will not pay them, but they are a useful benchmark for sanity-checking a quote for fixed works. Neither guide publishes a racking rate, because it turns on pallet positions, beam heights and load, so get an installer's itemised quote before you apply.

Structure matters more than the headline price. Racking, forklifts and mezzanines are equipment a lender can value, so they sit on a chattel mortgage, with forklifts typically written over two to seven years (forklift guide). Fixed works such as electrical, slab changes and partitions are weaker security, so that portion may need a deposit or property behind it, and a short remaining lease can limit what a lender wants to fund. Ventas is a broker across 40+ lenders, not a single bank, and there is no upfront fee to you; the lender pays us on settlement.