Equipment Refinancing in Canada: Turning Paid-Off Iron Into Working Capital
A business that owns its trucks, machinery, or production equipment outright is often sitting on its own cheapest source of capital. Equipment refinancing converts that locked equity into cash while the equipment keeps working.
Start an applicationWhat equipment refinancing actually is. Equipment refinancing is a loan or sale-leaseback structured against equipment your business already owns. Instead of financing a purchase, the lender advances funds against the appraised value of assets that are paid off or nearly paid off — the equipment stays in your yard, on your jobs, producing revenue, and the business gets working capital secured by it. Because the loan is secured by a hard asset with a resale market, it is generally cheaper than unsecured working capital for the same business profile.
When refinancing beats a new loan. The classic case is a business that is equipment-rich and cash-poor: strong iron on the balance sheet, a thin bank account, and a bank that declined the unsecured request. Refinancing is also used to consolidate expensive short-term debt into one structured payment, to fund a contract that requires upfront payroll and materials, or to buy out a partner without selling assets. If the business needs new equipment, a standard purchase facility fits better; if the capital need is general and the equipment is owned, refinancing is usually the stronger file.
What equipment qualifies. Lenders look for titled or serial-numbered equipment with an established resale market: trucks and trailers, construction and earth-moving machinery, manufacturing and production lines, agricultural and forestry equipment. Age limits are the same as purchase financing — typically around 10 years for trucks and 15 for construction equipment, with longer horizons for industrial machinery carrying maintenance records. An appraisal establishes the value; equipment without a resale market, or already pledged in full to another lender, does not carry a file.
How the amount and cost are set. The advance is set from the appraised value of the equipment, not its original purchase price, and the rate reflects the asset's age, liquidity, and the business's banking profile. Terms are structured like purchase financing — generally 24 to 84 months — matched to the equipment's remaining working life. There is no standard percentage worth quoting in the abstract: two identical machines can support different advances depending on who owns them and how they bank. The number that matters is quoted per file, with no application fee and no credit impact to get it.
How the process runs at Voxen. Submit the equipment list — make, model, year, serial numbers, hours — with your business banking. Voxen structures the file, orders the appraisal where one is needed, and returns a structured offer, typically within 24 hours of a complete file. Funding follows within days, not weeks. Refinancing demand is strong across Canada and particularly in Quebec's equipment-heavy regions, where Voxen handles files in French, end to end.