A skid steer is one of the most versatile machines on a worksite, and that is exactly why it sits in so many different businesses. A civil contractor uses one to shift spoil and load trucks in tight access. A landscaper runs it with a bucket one week and an auger the next. A farmer uses it around the yard and the sheds. A hire company puts it out on rate and wants it back in one piece. Same class of machine, four very different reasons to buy, and a lender reads each of those reasons differently.
This page covers how skid steer finance works in Australia: why the range of work the machine is bought for changes how an application reads, how attachments fit into the financed package, what wheeled versus tracked does to resale, what a lender looks at on a used machine, and what changes when you are buying to replace hire or sourcing from a private seller rather than a dealer. No rates or amounts appear here, because your numbers depend on your business and your deal. For those, get three free quotes at /quote/.
Why the breadth of work changes how a lender reads it
A skid steer is a general-purpose machine, and that cuts both ways for a lender. On one hand it holds value well because there is always a buyer: if your business stops, someone else in civil, landscaping, farming or hire still wants that machine. A broad resale market is a security a lender likes, because if things go wrong the asset is easy to move.
On the other hand, the lender still wants to understand the work behind the purchase. The commercial reasoning is simple: the repayments come out of the income the machine helps produce, so the stronger and clearer that income story, the more comfortable the lender is. A civil operator with signed subcontract work reads differently from a newer landscaping ABN chasing its first big jobs, even when both want the same loader.
The machine class helps you here. Because a skid steer earns across so many trades, a lender is rarely nervous about the asset itself. The questions land on the business: how long you have been trading, what work is lined up, and whether the machine adds capacity you can already sell.
Different operators, different questions
The established operator with plant already on the books and a few years of trading behind them is the most straightforward read. The business has a track record, the financials show it, and adding a skid steer to an existing fleet is a story a lender understands. Here the conversation moves quickly to structure: term, deposit, balloon and end of term.
The newer ABN with work lined up faces more questions, because there is less history to lean on. This is common in landscaping and civil, where operators go out on their own once the work is there. A lender wants to see the work behind the purchase: contracts, a purchase order, or a pattern of invoices that shows the machine will earn. A deposit or a traded machine can strengthen a thinner file. The small business equipment finance guide walks through how a smaller or newer business is assessed.
The owner operator buying a first machine is stepping from labour or hire into owning plant. The lender wants to understand the transition: where the work comes from, whether it is steady, and how the repayment sits against that income. Time in the industry and any assets already owned help the read.
The business replacing or upgrading an existing loader has the easiest story of all, because the machine already pays its way. Here the question is whether to trade the old unit, carry a balloon, and how the term lines up against how long you will keep the new one.
Attachments as part of the financed package
A skid steer is only as useful as the attachments on the coupler. Buckets, augers, grapples, brooms, mulchers, trenchers and pallet forks turn one machine into a fleet of tools, and how you finance them matters.
When attachments are bought at the same time as the machine, from the same dealer, on the one invoice, they usually fold into the financed package as part of the purchase. That is the cleanest path. The lender sees a single asset package with a clear value, and the whole working unit is financed together.
When attachments are bought separately, later, or from a different supplier, they can be harder to fold in. Some attachments carry enough value on their own to finance; small or low-value ones often do not, and are simpler to buy outright. If you know you will run a set of attachments, it is worth pricing them into the deal at the start so the machine arrives ready to earn rather than half-equipped. A broker can tell you what a given lender will and will not include, which is one of the things equipment finance brokers sort out before an application goes in.
Wheeled against tracked, and what each does to resale
Wheeled skid steers and tracked (compact track) loaders do overlapping work, but they suit different ground and carry different resale profiles, and a lender is aware of that.
Wheeled machines are typically cheaper to run and maintain, move faster on hard surfaces, and suit yards, sealed ground and firm sites. Tracked machines float better on soft, wet or sloping ground, spread their weight, and are the choice for landscaping and civil work on unformed ground. Tracks cost more to replace and wear faster in abrasive conditions, which the market prices in at resale.
From a lender's point of view both are financeable and both have a broad buyer base. The difference shows up in how the machine holds value over the term, which feeds into how the lender views the security. Neither is better across the board; the right choice is the one that matches your ground and your work, and the resale profile follows from that.
Used machines: hours, service history and condition
A large share of skid steer purchases are used, and a used machine brings its own assessment. The two things a lender weighs most are age and hours, because together they signal how much working life is left and how the machine will hold value across the term.
Hours matter more than years on a skid steer, since a lightly used farm machine and a hard-run civil unit of the same age are worlds apart. A full service history is worth a great deal here. It shows the machine was maintained, backs up the hours on the clock, and makes the lender more comfortable with an older asset. A machine with gaps in its history, or one that has clearly worked hard, reads as more risk, and the lender may want a shorter term or more deposit to balance that.
The general rule is that the older the machine, the shorter the term a lender will offer, because they match the finance to the working life left in the asset. If you are weighing new against used, the equipment finance rates guide explains how asset age and condition feed into the cost of finance.
Buying to replace hire
A lot of skid steers get bought at the point where hire stops making sense. You have been paying weekly rate long enough that owning looks cheaper, and the machine is on site often enough to justify it.
That is a strong story for a lender, because it means the demand is already proven. What helps most is showing the work behind it: a hire history, a run of invoices, or a contract that keeps the machine busy. The lender wants to see that the machine will be worked, not sitting idle, because a working machine earns the repayment. If you can show the hire spend you are replacing, you are effectively showing the income the purchase leans on. That evidence turns a newer or thinner file into a much more comfortable read.
New against used, dealer against private
Buying new from a dealer is the simplest path: a clean invoice, a clear value, warranty behind the machine, and often the widest range of finance structures on offer. Used from a dealer sits close behind, with the dealer standing behind the machine and handling the paperwork.
A private sale can suit your budget, but it adds steps. The lender has to verify the machine, confirm it is free of any existing finance, and satisfy itself on value and condition without a dealer in the middle. That takes longer and some lenders are more cautious about it, particularly on older machines. It is entirely doable, but build in time and expect more questions. The broader mechanics of how these deals are put together are covered in the equipment finance loans guide.
Structuring the deal
Beyond the machine, the levers you can move are the term, the deposit, whether you carry a balloon, and how the deal is owned. A longer term lowers the repayment but you pay for longer; a balloon lowers the repayment across the term but leaves a lump owing at the end that you refinance, pay out or settle against a trade. An equipment finance calculator with a balloon shows how that trade works before you commit.
The tax treatment of a financed skid steer, including depreciation and what you can claim, depends on your structure and the current rules, and those change. That is a question for the Australian Taxation Office or a registered tax agent, who can apply the current position to your business.
What to do next
Work out what the machine is for, whether you want wheeled or tracked, and which attachments you actually need day to day. Gather what shows the work behind the purchase: contracts, invoices, or your hire history. Have your business details and recent financials ready. Then get three free quotes at /quote/ so you are comparing real numbers on your own deal rather than guessing.