Borrowing Against Hunters Hill Investment Security When the Comparables Are Thin
Heritage stock and very few sales make Hunters Hill investment security hard to value, and the valuation decides the facility. Worked example inside.
If a company or a trust owns an investment property on the peninsula and you want capital out of it for the business, the loan works the same way it does anywhere else, but the number everything hangs off is harder to pin down here, because only about 106 houses changed hands in the whole suburb last year and much of the stock is listed or sits inside a conservation area, so a valuer has very little recent evidence to work from.
Key facts for Hunters Hill (2110), 12 months to September 2026
- Median five-bedroom house: $6.26 million. Four-bedroom: $4.03 million. Three-bedroom: $3.10 million.
- Median two-bedroom apartment: $875,000, from just 19 sales.
- Roughly 106 house sales in the year, from a population of 9,525.
- Four-bedroom houses take about 42 days to sell, five-bedroom about 32 days.
- Auction clearance on houses ran 61% to 68%, well above the Sydney average.
- 77% owner-occupiers, in stock running from cottages to waterfront estates.
Can you raise capital against a Hunters Hill property without selling it?
Usually you can, as long as the total debt stays inside the limit. We'll go to 75% of value on residential security, counting your existing bank loan and ours together, and we write $500,000 to $7.5 million as a second mortgage or $1 million to $20 million as a first, over 6 to 36 months.
The purpose is the part to be clear about early, because this is business and investment lending only, so the borrower needs to be a company, a trust with a corporate trustee, an SMSF, or an individual where the loan isn't caught by the National Credit Act, and the rest of how we decide whether a deal works is much the same here as anywhere.
A worked Hunters Hill example
Say a company owns a four-bedroom Hunters Hill investment house worth about $4.03 million with $1.5 million still owing to a bank, and the directors need $1.3 million of working capital for the business.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Security value | $4,030,000 |
| Existing bank first mortgage | $1,500,000 |
| New second mortgage | $1,300,000 |
| Total debt against the property | $2,800,000 |
| Combined LVR | 69.5% |
| Headroom to a 75% cap | $222,500 |
That's about $222,500 of room before the cap, which sounds comfortable until you remember the $4.03 million is a median rather than a valuation, and in a suburb this tightly held two valuers looking at the same sandstone cottage can land a long way apart.
What heritage and scarce evidence actually do to the facility
The listing doesn't stop us lending and it isn't really a credit problem, it's an evidence problem, because a valuer pricing a listed house with a restricted envelope is looking for comparable sales that mostly haven't happened, so they tend to be conservative and we size to the lower figure in front of us. Run the same deal at $3.6 million and at 75% the total debt can only be $2.7 million, the bank's $1.5 million doesn't move, and the second mortgage comes back to $1.2 million.
Heritage also narrows the buyer pool if the exit is a sale, because controls on what the next owner can change make those campaigns run longer even when the price is right, which argues for a longer term rather than a smaller loan.
How long would it take to sell in Hunters Hill?
About 32 to 42 days on Domain's figures with clearance on houses at 61% to 68%, which are good numbers against a Sydney market where values fell 3.3% in the June 2026 quarter and a record 29.3% of auctions were withdrawn, but they come off roughly 106 sales in a year, so a handful of results moves the median several points and you'd rather have twelve or eighteen months on the term and not need them.
What actually settles here
No private mortgage settled against a Hunters Hill property in the 90 days to August 2026, though five settled across northern Sydney, one each in Neutral Bay and Willoughby East, two in Ryde and one in Frenchs Forest, from $250,000 to $3.28 million, being two business investments, a refinance, a purchase and a construction line. The two nearest were both in Ryde, a $1,631,250 first at 75% against a house for a purchase and a $1,225,000 first at 72.06% against a townhouse to refinance.
Nationally there were 196 in the same 90 days, 82% secured by residential property at a median loan of $765,500, split 115 firsts and 81 seconds, with purposes running refinance 55, purchase 42, working capital 39 and business investment 26.
What Vía Private lends on
| Loan size | $1m to $20m first mortgage; $500k to $7.5m second mortgage |
| LVR | Up to 75% residential, 70% commercial |
| Term | 6 to 36 months |
| Borrower | Companies, trusts with a corporate trustee, SMSFs, and individuals where the loan is not NCCP-regulated |
| Purpose | Business and investment purposes only |
| Security | Completed residential, commercial or mixed use property in NSW, VIC, QLD and ACT |
What we will not do
We don't do consumer credit regulated by the National Credit Act, so if the security is the house you live in and the money is personal, we're not the right lender and we'll say so on the first call. We don't fund construction or development, and we don't lend against vacant land or pre-DA sites. Beyond that, we won't lend where there's no credible exit, and we won't lend against a valuation we haven't tested ourselves.
Questions people ask
Can I borrow against a Hunters Hill investment property without refinancing the bank loan? Yes. A second mortgage sits behind the existing first mortgage and leaves it in place. Vía Private writes second mortgages from $500,000 to $7.5 million, with the combined debt of both loans kept inside 75% of the property's value.
Does a heritage listing stop me borrowing against the property? No. It changes the valuation rather than the eligibility. Comparable sales are scarce for listed and conservation-area properties, so the range between valuers is wider and the facility is sized to the lower figure.
Who can borrow? Companies, trusts with a corporate trustee, SMSFs, and individuals where the loan is not regulated by the National Credit Act. The purpose must be business or investment, not personal or owner-occupied.
What happens if the valuation comes in under what I expected? The loan amount reduces so the combined debt still fits inside the cap. On a $4.03 million expectation that values at $3.6 million, a $1.5 million bank first mortgage leaves room for a $1.2 million second rather than $1.3 million.
How long does it take to sell a house in Hunters Hill? About 32 to 42 days on Domain data for the 12 months to September 2026, with auction clearance between 61% and 68%. Those figures come off roughly 106 sales in the year, so allow longer.
Getting a Hunters Hill scenario looked at
Most of the scenarios we see come through accredited mortgage brokers, so if you're already working with one, send them this page and they can put it to us. If you'd rather come to us first, email begin@viaprivate.com.au with the property, the amount you need, what it's for and how you plan to repay it.
Nearby: Lane Cove · Willoughby · Northbridge · Strathfield · Castlecrag
Figures are indicative and for illustration only. Median values are Domain suburb data for the 12 months to September 2026. Market commentary is from the Domain House Price Report, June quarter 2026. Settlement counts are from a private lending panel covering 196 mortgages funded nationally in the 90 days to August 2026. Transfer duty is calculated at Revenue NSW 2026-27 rates. Vía Private lends to companies, trusts and SMSFs for business and investment purposes only and does not provide consumer credit regulated by the National Credit Act. This page is general information and does not take your objectives or circumstances into account. Last reviewed 13 September 2026.
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