Smart ways to finance hospitality equipment without choking cashflow

Hospitality businesses can finance kitchen equipment, POS systems and delivery vehicles using stand‑alone equipment loans, leases and structured fit‑out funding, rather than loading everything onto a home loan. The safest approach is to keep total repayments within about 15–25% of realistic revenue, match each loan term to the gear’s working life, and avoid paying interest on obsolete tech.

Heavy kitchen equipment is often funded over 5–7 years to match its working life.

1. What you can actually finance in hospitality

1.1 Typical kitchen equipment

Lenders are generally comfortable funding standard, resaleable kitchen assets, for example:

• Commercial ovens, ranges and grills
• Refrigeration and freezers
• Dishwashers and glasswashers
• Coffee machines and grinders
• Stainless benches, exhausts and smallwares packages

New gear is usually easier to fund than used. As a guide, many lenders will finance 80–100% of the cash price for new equipment and a lower percentage for older or very specialised items (see also /insights/how-much-can-i-borrow-for-business-equipment-lvrs-terms-security).

1.2 Point‑of‑sale (POS) and tech

Most POS funding covers:

• Touchscreen terminals and tablets
• Receipt printers and cash drawers
• Kitchen display screens
• Software licences and subscriptions (sometimes bundled)

Tech has a shorter life. Lenders often want POS terms at 3–5 years, with a maximum asset age of 5–7 years by the end of the loan (consistent with broader tech rules from /insights/new-vs-used-equipment-what-lenders-will-and-wont-finance).

1.3 Delivery vehicles and scooters

For delivery‑focused venues and dark kitchens, finance can cover:

• Cars and small vans
• Refrigerated utes
• Scooters and motorbikes

Here, lenders usually cap total asset age at 10–15 years at the end of the term, so a 5‑year loan suits a 5–8 year old vehicle, and 5–7 years for brand‑new ones.

2. Main finance options: side‑by‑side

There’s no single “best” structure. The right answer mixes different products so each asset’s loan matches its working life.

2.1 Common facilities for hospitality equipment

For full fit‑outs, splitting funding into buckets is usually safer than one big blended loan. That principle is explained in detail for cafés in /insights/funding-mascot-cafe-restaurant-retail-fitout-without-killing-cashflow.

2.2 Why not just top up your home loan?

Using your home for business equipment can look cheap, but you’re often repaying a 5‑year asset over 25–30 years. Prior articles show this can nearly triple total interest versus a 5–7 year stand‑alone facility (see /insights/cross-collateralisation-property-equipment-loans-pros-cons-alternatives).

For hospitality operators, that also concentrates risk: one bad season and both the business and the family home are on the line.