Commercial finance brokers: Follow the infrastructure, follow the supply chain
Australia is in the middle of one of the largest coordinated construction programs in its history. New airports, new suburbs, new industrial precincts, new stadiums. Behind every one of them sits an ecosystem of businesses and, in Octet's experience, a working capital challenge that arrives long before the revenue does.
- Australia's Major Public Infrastructure Pipeline sits at $242 billion over five years, with a 141,000-worker shortfall that will sustain demand for capable businesses.
- Growth corridors in Western Sydney, South-East Queensland, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide are each backed by funded, dated project commitments.
- The commercial finance opportunity sits in the supply chain - the contractors, wholesalers, manufacturers and transport operators servicing these projects.
- Payment terms are the pressure point: construction and manufacturing both pay small suppliers materially slower than the terms they offer.
- Property-secured lending doesn't suit every growing business, which is why trade and debtor finance are worth raising early in the conversation.
Infrastructure Australia's 2025 Infrastructure Market Capacity Report tracks investment demand against the market's actual capacity to build, and the direction of travel reversed after two years of decline. Growth is driven largely by energy transmission and housing.
"Want to know where the next commercial finance opportunities are coming from? Follow the infrastructure.”
Ben HowellOctet National Business Development Manager
The constraint matters as much as the number. A pipeline that outruns the available workforce means longer programs and sustained demand for businesses that can mobilise.
Western Sydney is the clearest example. Alongside the airport, the NSW Government reports that seven state significant projects worth $1.93 billion have been approved in the Aerotropolis since 2023, and that stage 1 civil works at Bradfield are complete, one third of Australia's newest city is serviced and development-ready. Planned developments exceeding $14.4 billion are expected to create 200,000 jobs.
South East Queensland is running a parallel story. The 2026-27 Queensland Budget delivers a $119.2 billion capital program over four years, including $55.9 billion for transport and roads, with Brisbane 2032 venues sitting inside a $7.1 billion funding provision to 2031-32.
"Don't just look at what's being built. Look at the businesses required to build it," says Ben.
The same pattern is emerging elsewhere. Suburban Rail Loop East tunnelling begins in Melbourne this year, with services from 2035. In Perth, the Commonwealth has committed $12 billion in initial funding for the Henderson Defence Precinct, where total infrastructure cost is estimated at around $25 billion and more than 10,000 jobs are expected. In Adelaide, southern tunnelling on the $15.4 billion Torrens to Darlington project starts in the second half of 2026.
Ben states: "A growth corridor isn't just a property story, it's a business story. Someone has to clear the land, someone has to build the road, someone has to supply the concrete and the steel."
Then, as those communities fill in, a second wave arrives to service them — warehousing, medical centres, childcare, retail, hospitality.
Very few of those businesses are large. They are the SMEs your book is already full of, and many of them are about to be handed the biggest contracts of their lives.
This is the part brokers should be watching. Payment Times Reporting Regulator data shows a persistent gap between the terms a business agrees to and when it is actually paid. A contractor who wins a major package still has to pay wages, plant hire and materials weeks or months before the progress claim clears.
"A great opportunity for a business can also create a significant working capital challenge," says Ben. "That's the gap - between paying for growth and getting paid for growth."
Scale magnifies that gap rather than closing it. Doubling the size of a job doubles the outlay while the payment lag stays the same.
The financing response is where it gets difficult. The Reserve Bank's October 2025 Bulletin found the most commonly reported SME finance challenges were lender requirements being too strict, difficulty obtaining a suitable interest rate, long processing times, and the requirement to provide property or personal assets as collateral. For a growing business without surplus property equity, that is a hard wall.
When a land release, development approval or major project is announced in your patch, the useful question isn't who is financing the property. It's which of your existing clients could benefit, and whether growth is putting pressure on their cash position.
Trade finance lets a business pay suppliers upfront and extend its own payment terms, so procurement stops competing with payroll. Debtor finance converts unpaid invoices into working capital, so the business isn't funding its customers' payment terms out of its own pocket.
Both are structured around trading activity rather than bricks and mortar, which is precisely why they suit businesses whose growth has outpaced their balance sheet.
"You don't need to know exactly what the solution is. You just need to recognise the opportunity and start the conversation", summarises Ben.
Octet's broker proposition and structured facilities are designed for businesses chasing growth — the ones winning contracts bigger than their balance sheet was built for.
OctetDebtor finance unlocks up to 85 per cent of invoice value within 24 hours, with limits to $25 million per ledger and no debt service tests or financial covenants. It's funding that grows with turnover, which suits clients caught between a major contract win and a slow-paying head contractor.
Our award winning OctetTrade finance pays local and international suppliers upfront, capturing bulk discounts and freeing up assets to fund the next job. Existing bank facilities stay in place, and multiple cash flow lenders can be consolidated into one.
For brokers, that means upfront commission plus ongoing trail on settled deals — and because the facility scales with your client's turnover, the relationship grows with it.
And if you're new to Octet, register for our Referral Partner Program and power your clients' grow.
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Disclaimer: The above article content and comments are our views and should not be construed as advice. You should act using your own information and judgment. Although information has been obtained from and is based upon multiple sources the author believes to be reliable, we do not guarantee its accuracy and it may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions and estimates constitute the author’s own judgment as at the date of publication and are subject to change without notice.